Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8) is an attorney who has represented San Antonio’s far Northwest side on the City Council since 2017. He previously served on the boards of Brooks City Base and VIA Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Hear from the candidate
Please tell voters about yourself.
I attended Trinity University in 1992. Met the girl of my dreams on the first day of class and swore to never leave San Antonio. I attended law school at St. Mary’s University I was the first person ever hired by Toyota Manufacturing. Prior and current community services includes Chairman of Brooks City Base, Trustee for VIA Metropolitan Transit, board member of the Cesar Chavez Legacy and Education Foundation, Asociacíon Amigos de Colombia, the San Antonio Economic Development Corporation, board member of the World Affairs Council, and my homeowners association board.
Today, I am a small business owner and I represent other small businesses and neighborhoods throughout Central Texas and the Gulf Coast.
In a field of 27 mayoral candidates, what differentiates you from the others?
I am the only candidate to authentically meet the three required qualifications for this job: A track record of success, expertise, and a vision for a city that can and should be striving for more. I have a proven track spanning three decades. Because of my work and the work of my team, thousands of San Antonians have excellent jobs and can afford to send their kids to college.
I have guided the city’s largest economic development projects in our history. Before serving on City Council, I represented hundreds of San Antonio neighborhoods. I am the only candidate who currently represents small business and who has run a successful small business for decades. I will bring that expertise and experience to the Mayor’s office to guarantee that San Antonio will be the safest, strongest, and smartest city in America. No more compromises and no more excuses.
If elected, you would be taking over at a time when the city has spent more than a year negotiating a massive downtown redevelopment effort in Project Marvel. How would you approach this project?
I support Project Marvel and I believe it is an opportunity for us to create a bold and vibrant downtown for San Antonians. However, as the next Mayor, I will not allow this project to move forward unless we also address the lies that were sold to all of us 25 years ago.
The east side residents and the taxpayers deserve more transparency and a real seat at the table to which they were denied so long ago. I will also not allow this project to move forward without an authentic and bold economic development plan for the east side.
Lastly, I will never support the spending of general fund tax dollars to build a stadium. The Spurs will have to find a way to pay for that without expecting City Hall to write them a check from funds intended for neighborhood safety, infrastructure, and services.
In the city’s 2024-2025 budget survey, residents ranked homelessness, streets,
housing and animal care services among their top concerns for the city to address. Which issues do you consider a top concern and how would you work to address them in your first 100 days?
You can draw a straight line from any of those four topics to the underlying anxiety too many people feel about their safety in the face of explosive population growth. San Antonio is now a big city with big city problems and my neighbors deserve a Mayor who dedicates all his attention to keeping people safe and resilient. I will, on the first day, announce that San Antonio will achieve three bold goals in four years:
1. We will be the safest city in America.
2. We will be the strongest city in America.
3. We will be the smartest city in America.
We will accomplish this informed by compassion, equity, inalienable civil rights, and transparency. We will enforce the law. We will help to pull people out of generational poverty. We will accelerate building decent housing. And we will not rest until everyone has a good job.
For the past four years San Antonio has worked closely with the Biden Administration on federally funded projects like airport development and Advanced Rapid Transit. How would you approach working with both state leaders in Austin and a new presidential administration in D.C.?
Long before Biden or Abbot were in power I successfully negotiated and collaborated with Austin and D.C. I will use that experience to inform future negotiations and collaboration. San Antonio can not afford to miss out on opportunities to bring our tax dollars home to pay for new streets, highways, the airport, drainage, and public safety.
At the same time, I will ferociously oppose any state or federal effort that erodes our ability to deliver services to our tax payers. I will also not compromise our values or stand by while our nonprofit sector is negatively impacted by the wins of cynicism that are blowing through D.C. and Austin.
I will be a Mayor who negotiates and collaborates as zealously as he fights for San Antonio’s right to manage its affairs for the benefit of families who deserve to live, work, play, and thrive in a safe and stable city.
Read more about Manny Pelaez
Big spending in San Antonio mayor race kicks off self-funding surge
Inside the expensive, ‘confusing,’ 27-candidate race to be San Antonio’s next mayor
Mayoral hopefuls scramble to stand out at neighborhood meeting — one even brought a film crew
Abbott-aligned PAC jumps into San Antonio’s mayor race
Altamirano, Pelaez lead 2025 mayoral fundraising
Anti-panhandling signs go up on San Antonio’s Northwest Side
District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez launches 2025 mayoral bid
