AUSTIN — Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones projected confidence for Democrats targeting two uphill San Antonio-area congressional races this November, citing backlash to President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration tactics and struggling economy.
Jones lost two uphill congressional races in South Texas before winning the mayor’s race, falling less than 1,000 votes short of Republican Will Hurd in 2018.
Now Jones says San Antonians have been among the hardest hit by GOP policies, pointing to high inflation, Medicaid cuts and chilling deportation policies.
“I think what’s motivating people is the needless suffering in our community — whether you’re talking about the economy, whether you’re talking about the [undocumented] community … there’s a needless fear,” Jones said on a panel at the Texas Tribune Festival on Friday.
“I’m an Air Force veteran, worked my entire career in national security, so of course we need immigration enforcement,” she continued. “What we’re seeing now falls well short of how we should be treating people in our community, which is with dignity and and with respect.”
San Antonio is one of the few communities where plans for a new ICE detention center are still moving forward, expected to open this November.
“If there’s anything I know, there are two things that folks don’t want to live next to in San Antonio. They don’t want to live next to an ICE facility, and they don’t want to live next to a data center,” Jones said.
“A lot of that depends on what’s happening at the federal level.”
When Jones first ran for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, it was one of the most competitive in the nation — and both parties found candidates with sterling resumes to represent it.
Since then, Republicans have drawn districts more favorable for their party, and candidate recruitment has been very different.
This cycle Democrats scrambled to line up a candidate to run against Republican Tony Gonzales, who wound up resigning after an affair with a staffer.
Now the GOP’s nominee is gun influencer Brandon Herrera, who Jones said is among a number of candidates she considers out-of-step with San Antonio values.
Herrera is known for his eyebrow-raising YouTube videos that give even those in his own party pause.
“Some of the things are just so tacky I don’t even want to repeat it,” Jones said.
“To think that anybody would want to entrust the future of the country with some of these folks that use terms like ‘cum trophy,’ that’s disgusting, right? … It’s so beneath the office.”
