2025 mayoral hopefuls swarm Westside neighborhood meeting (2024)

Members of the Jefferson Neighborhood Association got a sneak preview of the 2025 mayoral race Tuesday night when five prospective candidates showed up to woo voters a solid five months before they can even file to run.

The group’s president Ted Guerra said he invited San Antonio City Council members Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6), Manny Pelaez (D8) and John Courage (D9), as well as tech entrepreneur Beto Altamirano to the meeting so that residents could start getting to know their options.

But in a crowded race where candidates are already scrambling to differentiate themselves, his invitation turned out even more candidates than expected, each jumping at the rare opportunity to start introducing themselves to new voters.

“We just came for a neighborhood meeting and all these mayoral candidates showed up,” said Jefferson resident Esther DeLeon. “It was like, ‘Whoa.'”

Pelaez, who represents the Northwest side, led off the event with a speech that drew praise from the audience for vowing to crack down on crime and homeless encampments, which he said are destroying homes and businesses in his district.

DeLeon said she was already familiar with Pelaez from having seen him on TV, and he has her support in the race.

Next came Altamirano, who had block-walked the neighborhood earlier that day and brought a film crew and at least a half-dozen campaign staffers to the event. He spoke about his experience starting a business in San Antonio and his plans to “up-skill” San Antonio workers for the modern economy.

His outsider candidacy had caught the attention of Jefferson resident Stan Waghalter, who said Tuesday he was intrigued by Altamirano’s ability to grow a business from a few employees to dozens. “Whether that translates into something that meets the needs of San Antonio, I don’t know yet,” Waghalter said.

Face-to-face with four candidates who have years of experience at City Hall, Altamirano told attendees, “I’m very uninspired by what I’m seeing from City Council, and that’s what I’m proposing, change.”

Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4), who had signaled her plans to run for mayor just hours before the event, said she heard about the meeting that afternoon and asked Guerra for the opportunity to attend.

She gave an impassioned, personal speech about assuring her mother that she’d be OK running for mayor as an unmarried woman because she’d already put herself through college and two advanced degrees while raising a child on her own.

“I said, ‘Guess what, I don’t need a husband,'” Rocha Garcia said. “And I reminded her, I was able to finish my education because my community believed me, because my community supported me.”

That message resonated with a table of residents who said they didn’t know Rocha Garcia was thinking of running for mayor, but they appreciated her candor and her drive to overcome obstacles that are relatable to many San Antonians.

“It’s nice to see that we have at least one female mayoral candidate,” said Amanda Chicago, who recently bought a house in the Jefferson neighborhood.

Cabello Havrda introduced herself as the only candidate in the group who was not running for mayor — a comment that drew laughs from an audience that seemed familiar with her extensive mayoral maneuvering in recent months.

While she hasn’t formally launched a campaign, Cabello Havrda’s campaign staff appeared with her at the event.

“Our precinct is a high voting one,” Guerra reasoned of the audience’s political savvy. “[Former] Mayor [Ed] Garza lives here. The Castro twins went to Jefferson High School. I mean, we care about voting.”

Courage, who joined the race in January, sought to stand out from the crowd by highlighting his experience with the city-owned utilities. The city’s mayor sits on the boards of both city-owned utilities, CPS Energy and the San Antonio Water System, in their official capacity.

“I’m the only councilman who’s ever gone to the SAWS board meetings to listen to what they’re doing about water, or the CPS [Energy] board meetings to hear what they’re doing about our electricity,” he said.

After the success of this informal mayoral forum, Guerra said he’s planning to do a a bigger one with other neighborhoods in February.

At least one attendee left Tuesday’s forum still undecided.

“It’s going to be difficult to separate, everyone sounded the same,” Jefferson resident Joseph Marquez said in an interview after the event. “They’re all dealing with safety, infrastructure. … So, to make a distinct choice, I’m not sure how that’s going to work.”