El Paso voters from the West Side to the Lower Valley will soon decide who will replace House District 77 Rep. Lina Ortega during the upcoming Democratic primary election.

Four candidates have thrown their hats in the ring, including former El Paso City Councilor Alexsandra Annello, former El Paso County Commissioner Vincent “Vince” Perez, former state Rep. Norma Chávez and independent insurance agent Homer Reza. With no Republican candidates running, the winner of the primary will take office in 2025 and hold a two-year term with an annual salary of $7,200.

Early voting runs from Feb. 20 to March 1. Election Day is March 5.

Ortega, who announced in the summer of 2023 that she would not seek reelection, has held office since 2017. Her replacement will go on to represent an estimated 204,000 El Pasoans in the 2025 Legislative Session, where battles over school vouchers, immigration and gun control are expected to erupt.

All four candidates said they oppose Gov. Greg Abbott’s failed efforts to create a voucher program that would allow parents to use state funds to send their children to private schools. The governor spent all of 2023 pushing for the program, calling lawmakers back to Austin four times and holding education funding hostage to get it passed. 

The candidates say they are prepared to spend most of 2025 at the state capital to try and stop any type of voucher program from making it through the Legislature.

All four candidates said they would support some form of gun control measures if they were elected, including “red flag” laws that allow courts to temporarily confiscate firearms from a person if they are deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. They also oppose the recently passed Senate Bill 4 that makes it a state crime to illegally cross the border from Mexico to Texas.

Alexsandra Annello

Annello, 39, entered the race with more than a year and 30 days left in her term on the El Paso City Council, forcing her to step down from her position under the state’s “resign to run” law.

This triggered a special election to find her replacement, costing the city $275,000 – a move that drew ire from El Paso residents and her opponents who claimed she abandoned her position to advance her political career.

“It was a decision I had to make, and I did not make it alone and made it with my constituents,” Annello told El Paso Matters. “I think a lot of the work that we’ve done at city council can be and should be continued at the state level and that is why we ultimately together made that decision.”

Annello was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She moved to Texas in 2006, living in Austin and Marfa until settling in El Paso in 2012. She  serves on the Board of Directors for the Rio Grande Council of Governments and the Emergence Health Network Board of Trustees and was the El Paso City Council liaison to the Animal Shelter Advisory Committee.

During her time on City Council, Annello pushed for several progressive initiatives, including updating the El Paso Police Department’s policies to improve transgender rights and a failed resolution that would have given low-income families $500 a month to cover expenses under an 18-month pilot program.

Now as a legislative candidate, some of her top priorities include improving reproductive health care rights, mental health funding and infrastructure improvements.

“We have really big conversations coming up about infrastructure and transportation in this community,” Annello said. “I just think when we’re talking about improving our transportation we also need to be talking about safety. … I really believe that our state as a whole but especially in this community is well behind on the technology advancements for safe travel.”

Annello raised more than $26,500 through December, her Jan. 15 campaign finance report shows, and raised an additional $7,100, according to her Feb. 5 report. 

This includes $2,500 from the state Democrat Rep. Mary Gonzalez of Clint; $2,500 from Shane Edmondson, a clerk for BKL; $1,000 from Rosario and Robert Halpern from Marfa, Texas; and $1,000 from local business owner Deborah Kastrin. She also got a few out-of-state contributions, including $1,000 from Ohio flight instructor Mark Calendine and $1,000 from California talent manager Linnea Toney.

Annello received endorsements from the Texas AFL-CIO, a state federation of labor unions representing workers from various fields, the El Paso Central Labor Union and the Westside Democrats of El Paso.

She is also being endorsed by Planned Parenthood Texas Votes PAC, which requires candidates to commit to supporting legal abortion.

Both Annello and Perez also received a $1,000 donation each from El Paso mayoral candidate Renard Johnson.

Vince Perez

Perez, 42, was elected to the El Paso County Commissioners Court in 2012 and served two terms until being voted out in 2020. 

After a break from public office, he said he wanted another opportunity to serve his community, this time as a state legislator.

“I think when we talk about who can best advocate for the community, I think having that strong understanding of growing up in El Paso and going through our public schools is super important,” Perez told El Paso Matters.

If Perez is elected, he will work alongside his ex-wife, state Rep. Claudia Ordaz – a factor he says will not get in the way of his ability to legislate.

“I don’t think it’s an issue at all. We’re both public servants,” Perez said.

Before taking office, Perez worked as a communications director for the U.S. House of Representatives. Over the years, he has also served as chairman of the El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Policy Board, vice chairman of the Central Appraisal District Board of Directors and the Texas Border Trade Advisory Committee.

During his time in county office, Perez successfully proposed the creation of the county’s first pretrial office and aided in efforts to overturn the approval of a medical waste treatment facility in El Paso’s Mission Valley.

In 2016, Perez also voted to give himself and his fellow commissioners a  $26,500 pay raise, partially to get more young people to run for office in the future, he said. The move drew criticism from some citizens and his state representative opponents, including Chávez. 

“The effort to increase compensation was part of broader attempts to weed out corruption, reform the institutions that had been weakened and restore integrity and public trust,” Perez said in response.

If elected, Perez said he plans to focus his legislative efforts on economic development, infrastructure improvements including modernizing Interstate10 and increasing educational achievement in El Paso.

“If we’re going to talk about developing our economy with good paying jobs we need to have a strongly educated workforce,” Perez said. “We still have this brain drain here in our community. We’re losing tens of thousands of people every year to other cities like Houston, Austin, Dallas and San Antonio and it’s because we don’t have the same opportunities that they have.”

Perez raised more than any other candidate in the race, collecting more than $56,000, according to his Jan. 15 campaign finance report. His Feb. 5 reports show he raised an additional $3,100. 

A number of the donations came from prominent El Pasoans, including $5,000 from billionaire businessman Paul Foster; $5,000 from businessman Woody Hunt; $2,500 from Southwest University at El Paso President Benjamin Arriola; and $1,000 from El Paso Electric CEO Kelly Tomblin. Perez also received $2,000 from the Texas State Farm Agents PAC.

Norma Chávez

Chávez, 63, is reentering politics following a 13-year hiatus after she served as state representative for District 76 from 1997 to 2011. Now she hopes her seniority and experience as a lawmaker will give her an upper hand in the race.

“I come in with seniority and I come in with institutional knowledge of the legislative process. I know the game,” Chávez told El Paso Matters.

She currently works as a political consultant with her own business, Texico Communications, and as an Airbnb Superhost. She is also a caregiver for her parents.

As a legislator, Chávez said she plans to prioritize infrastructure improvement meant to reduce traffic near international border crossings, property tax reform, elder care, veterans support and using immigration enforcement funding on public safety.

“I believe that we need border funding specific for law enforcement in El Paso County and the border region. They do not need to be Border Patrol agents, but they need to be able to have the funds and the resources to handle the regular work,” Chávez said.

During her time in office, Chávez authored several successful pieces of legislation, including making human trafficking a state felony, establishing a diabetes research center at the Texas Tech University campus in El Paso and creating two new El Paso County criminal courts.

Her time in and out of office has been mired in controversy, from election violations that led to a $1,000 fine from the Texas Ethics Commission in 2011 to taking over $3,500 in donations from lobbyists for an extravagant graduation party in Austin in 2009, according to an El Paso Times report. 

Chávez said she doesn’t think her past will get in the way of garnering support.

“That was then and this is now. I’m an older, wiser, mature woman,” Chávez said. “So none of the controversies, which were petty, ever impacted my capacity to deliver to the community.”

Chávez, alongside radio executive John Carrillo and immigration attorney Enrique Garcia, filed a lawsuit in 2018 alleging voter fraud after losing that year’s primary elections for U.S. Congress to Rep. Veronica Escobar. The suit claimed election officials tampered with voting machine hard drives to benefit Escobar without providing evidence, according to an El Paso Times report. 

The trio dropped the suit less than a month after filing it.

“I will do everything in my personal capacity to ensure that every vote is protected in El Paso and this election. If there is any real voter manipulation, either in vote by mail or early voting, or Election Day, I guarantee you I will be extremely involved to protect people’s right to vote and that their vote is respected,” Chávez said after being asked if she would accept the results of the election if she loses.

Chávez reported receiving nearly $32,000 in political contributions on her Jan. 15 campaign finance reports. She reported an additional $5,600 in her Feb. 6 reports.

This includes $5,000 from Houston hotelier and museum owner couple JP Bryan and Mary Jon, $2,500 from El Paso business owner Stanley Jobe, $1,500 from former El Paso City Council member Cissy Lizarraga, and $1,000 from retired state Rep. Joe Pickett. She also received $2,500 each from the El Paso Municipal Police Officers PAC and the El Paso Sheriff’s Officers Association.

She announced her candidacy with more than 100 endorsements from organizations and public figures, including the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, El Paso County Commissioner Iliana Holguin and former state Rep. Joe Pickett.

Homer Reza

After years of working in the private sector as an insurance agent Reza, 73, is running for public office.

Reza was born in Torreón, Mexico, and immigrated to the United States when he was only 5 years old. He grew up in El Paso and graduated from the University of Texas in El Paso in 1972.

Over the years, he worked for IBM and the Eastman Kodak Company, where he says he learned skills in sales, management and business development. He started his own independent insurance company, the Homer Reza Agency, in 2016.

Reza said his time in the corporate world has given him the experience to solve people’s problems, something he says his opponents lack.

“It’s the same thing with politics, you serve your community by finding out what their needs are, looking for the solution to address those needs and putting it into action at the state level,” Reza told El Paso Matters. “If you take that into perspective, then I have more experience in politics than all of my other opponents put together.”

Though Reza spent most of his life working in the private sector, he has had some experience in public service.

After graduating from college, he worked at the Texas Health and Human Services Department, which was then known as the Department of Public Welfare. From 2005 to 2006, he was board chairman for the League of United Latin American Citizens’ Project Amistad in El Paso, the largest and oldest Hispanic and Latin-American civil rights organization in the country, and served as chairman of the former Fiesta De Las Flores festival four times.

Most recently, he served on the El Paso County Commissioners Court redistricting commission in 2021, which redrew precinct boundary lines based on the latest U.S. Census data.

Reza ran for the same seat he is currently seeking during the 2000 Democratic primary, losing by over 75% of the vote to state Rep. Paul Moreno. 

As a relative political outsider, Reza said he hopes to bring changes to the Legislature.

“In my opinion, there’s a lot of personal interest in political careers that are driving their decisions, so what I want to do is change that culture,” Reza said. “I was the last one to file this because I see the same people running over and over. And in order for us to have positive change, we cannot afford to be putting back the same people.”

Some of Reza’s legislative priorities include funding elderly care, pushing for low-interest loans and tax incentives for small businesses and increasing school safety.

Reza received a single donation of $2,000 from the sales director for Arineta, Gabriel Reza, according to his Jan. 15 campaign finance report. He raised an additional $4,000, made up primarily of small contributions under $500, according to his Feb. 5 report.

Though he’s raised less than any of his opponents, Reza said he is not deterred.

“That’s the norm for a newcomer that doesn’t have the history of being in politics,” Rez said. “I think that if the people give me a chance and give me an opportunity to serve them, they will know what type of person I am.”