El Paso Democrats Unveil 2026 Congressional TX-16 Republican Voter Guide
- 3 days ago
- 9 min read
Today, the El Paso County Democratic Party released the following Republican voter guide for candidates running in Texas’ 16th Congressional District.
“As El Pasoans head to the polls, it’s important that our Republican friends voting in their primary have the best picture of the candidates they decide to support.”
We’d like to thank the El Paso Republican Liberty Caucus for providing us with so much information. Hopefully, you all can invest in a new sound system soon.
Information in this guide is attributed to the El Paso Matters article “GOP primary draws 7 candidates for party’s 16th Congressional District nomination” unless otherwise noted. Additionally, responses or questions we wish each candidate would be asked are also included.
As noted by El Paso Matters, voting records show that five of the seven GOP candidates haven’t voted in any Republican primary in El Paso in the past decade. The only exceptions are Rios and Chavez, and Chavez voted in the Democratic primary in 2024. Additionally, with President Donald Trump’s controversial first year into his second term, only about a quarter of Americans (27%) say they support all or most of Trump’s policies and plans, according to a Pew Research Center survey in January. That’s down from 35% compared with when he returned to office last year – a decrease that has come entirely among Republicans, the Pew survey shows.
Manuel J. Barraza, 70, former district court judge
He is a convicted criminal who was sentenced to five years in federal prison after he accepted cash and sexual favors in exchange for judicial influence in a felony case when he was a judge.
He was disbarred and said the charges were a political hit job.
He cites incorrect or misleading reasons, and then walks back in his interview with El Paso Matters.
He believes the $1.24 billion contract to build and operate Camp East Montana and similar detention centers is necessary
This comes after Congresswoman Escobar has raised concerns about fraud, waste, and abuse at this location.
Says Trump’s mass deportation efforts and ICE tactics “look not that good,” but still supports them
Adam Bauman, 49, Navy veteran and former Border Patrol agent who now runs a canine drug detection business
Has a website with plans that aren’t detailed or concrete to support his priorities of reforming Social Security (Republican speak for slash it) and other issues like women in sports
Says “Trump is absolutely doing the right thing with his tariffs.”
A new study has found that Trump’s tariffs have resulted in an average increased cost of $1,000 in 2025 and $1,300 in 2026 per US households
Says his reason for running is because he wants someone who’s “not beholden to Washington insiders or special interests” (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 22:10)
How do we know he isn’t beholden to the same things he’s criticizing? He did not submit a campaign finance report with the FEC. Is it because he didn’t raise any money, he was incompetent, or because he’s hiding who his donors are?
Says Jim Jordan best represents his ideology because he’s “articulate, passionate, a fighter for conservative values, and fought for Trump during his impeachment” (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 28:50)
Jim Jordan, the same man who turned a blind eye to allegations of sexual abuse when he was a wrestling coach at Ohio State University?
Would support the SAVE Act (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 42:49)
From the Brennan Center: the SAVE Act would require American citizens to present documents such as a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. Our research shows that more than 21 million Americans lack ready access to those documents. Roughly half of Americans don’t even have a passport. Millions lack access to a paper copy of their birth certificate. The SAVE Act would disenfranchise Americans of all ages and races, but younger voters and voters of color would suffer disproportionately. Likewise, millions of women whose married names aren’t on their birth certificates or passports would face extra steps just to make their voices heard.
Says he’d introduce legislation to make all DOGE cuts permanent (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 48:11)
According to American Oversight, DOGE has taken a hatchet to federal programs that aid people in their most vulnerable moments. It will be harder to tell millions of Americans if and when to evacuate during severe weather events thanks to DOGE’s cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Individuals with cancer, diabetes, and heart conditions could miss out on the newest medical treatments due to the $4 billion in National Institute of Health medical research grants DOGE slashed. Hundreds of thousands of people are out of work after DOGE eliminated federal positions and the contracts that supported local economies across the country. Those experiencing economic instability and hunger could face shortages at food banks due to the $1 billion cut from the Department of Agriculture. 14 million people could die over the next five years as a result of DOGE’s cancellation of 83 percent of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s programs that provided essential services across the globe. For example, a seven-year-old Nigerian boy died after the USAID-funded clinic that treated his sickle-cell disease abruptly closed this spring.
Does this mean Bauman supports all of this?
Hector Cabildo, entrepreneur
Says his reason for running is because “he’s tired of the narrative being pushed by the Left.” He continues that the “Left in the country has colluded with communism, globalism, and Islamism.” He then says that “the Left in our country is colluding with the devil.” (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 23:23)
Does this mean he thinks every Democratic voter is colluding with the devil? Does this mean he thinks half the country and a majority of El Pasoans are colluding with the devil?
Says Mike Johnson best represents his ideology because of his values (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 29:21)
As Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson has singlehandedly done more to rubber-stamp Trump’s agenda in Congress than anyone else.
Says immigration “is one of the key issues in his platform” (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 34:15)
Given that it is a “key issue,” he has only one sentence about visas on his website under the immigration section, and he has spoken highly of Congresswoman Escobar’s Dignity Act.
Would support the SAVE Act (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 42:06)
Says cutting “fraud and waste” is part of his agenda (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 49:45)
There is no mention whatsoever on his website that this is true or what detailed plans he has to achieve this.
Wants to lower taxes for people making a lot of money because we “need to incentivize our entrepreneurs” (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 56:22)
This is the basis for Ronald Reagan’s failed trickle-down economics. It has been proven time and time again that tax cuts for the wealthy are a major driver of income inequality and benefit nobody except the rich.
Says the federal government “should not interfere with the lives of people unless it comes to pro-life, but that it shouldn’t interfere and make decisions for people” (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 1:17:42)
Filed his campaign finance report late (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 1:28:56)
Wants to create “unity” as a member of Congress (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 1:36:07)
If this is the case, why did he say his reason for running is because “he’s tired of the narrative being pushed by the Left”? Why did he say that the “Left in the country has colluded with communism, globalism, and Islamism”? Why did he say that “the Left in our country is colluding with the devil”
Raul “Bullet” Castaneda, 71, Navy veteran, teacher
Claims to have a “seven-year immigration plan.”
Refuses to disclose his plan
Blames other candidates for possibly stealing his ideas
Says his priority is asking Elon Musk to build a car factory in El Paso
Favors using school vouchers
Vouchers threaten public school systems by syphoning off resources from public schools to private institutions
Didn’t file an FEC report
His justification was that “his campaign takes care of that stuff.”
What happened to personal responsibility? Is he blaming his staff because he doesn’t want people to see who’s funding his campaign? Does he have anything to hide? Does he even have a staff?
Marisela Chavez, 67, retired office manager
Said she chose to run as a Republican because she “had to choose a party.”
She wants to ban foreigners from running for federal office because “they’d bring in outside laws and religions that don’t belong in the country.”
Which laws and religions would they bring?
Didn’t file a campaign finance report because she “didn’t know she had to”
Didn’t include disclaimer language on her campaign literature that is required by campaign finance law
Deliris “DMB” Montanez, 55, retired Border Patrol agent and Army Reserve officer
She has never received more than 12% of the vote in a race in her political career
She challenged Congresswoman Escobar in the 2022 Democratic primary and was walloped 88-12.
In 2022, she ran for City Council after losing to Congresswoman Escobar. She finished in 6th place with 4.7% of the vote.
In 2024, she ran as an independent for TX-16. She only received 0.1% of the final vote.
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She owes more than $71,000 in debt and loans through her campaign finance committee.
Calls herself the “most viable candidate” to win against Congresswoman Escobar (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 26:19)
She’s lost against Congresswoman Escobar by double digits every time she’s faced her, and the highest percentage of votes she’s ever received in an election is 12% back in 2022.
Claims there was “election interference” in 2020 (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 27:00), says she sent a letter to President Trump with evidence that she’ll only reveal “once she wins the primary” (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 27:15)
Per the Brennan Center, the nation’s top intelligence and law enforcement agencies have confirmed that there is no evidence of significant voter fraud in American elections and that the 2020 election was secure.
Wants to “get rid of early voting” because in Puerto Rico, “it’s hard to commit election fraud because there’s only one day to vote” (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 40:35)
According to the US Vote Foundation, early voting is available in PR.
According to the Brennan Center, extensive research shows that fraud is very rare, voter impersonation is virtually nonexistent, and many alleged fraud cases are, in fact, mistakes by voters or administrators. The same is true for mail ballots, which are secure and essential to holding a safe election amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Ruben Arturo Rios, history teacher at SISD
Refers to June, also known as Pride Month, as “The Month of Copious Sin.”
Are we okay with a current SISD teacher saying this?
2020 election denier, says President Biden did not win and that he is an “illegitimate president.”
Says his reason for running for Congress is because we have inflation as “we’re spending money that we do not have” (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 20:22)
Does he know the One Big Beautiful Bill is estimated to add $4.1 trillion to the debt over the next ten years and could add anywhere between $19 and $32 trillion to our national debt over the next 30 years?
Knowing this, and ignoring all the cuts it makes to Medicaid and SNAP in favor of tax breaks for the wealthy, how would he have voted on the One Big Beautiful Bill?
Says Ron Paul best represents his ideology because he was a fiscal conservative and wanted to reduce the debt (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 28:10)
Again, we ask, would he have supported the One Big Beautiful Bill, knowing how much it would add to our debt?
Wants ballots to be paper ballots with a watermark and for them to be hand-counted because “any high schooler could hack into electronic voter machines” (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 44:03)
Learn about the debunked voting machine conspiracies and what the truth is here
Says “Republicans are the reasonable ones” and that Democrats “resort to violence” (Republican Liberty Caucus Forum, 2/12/2026, 1:39:29)
Republicans are led by Donald Trump, a convicted felon with known associations with Jeffrey Epstein. He has refused to release the entirety of the Epstein Files, wreaked havoc with his personal police force known as ICE across the country, and slashed funding for healthcare and SNAP, so those funds can be used for tax breaks for the wealthy.
Right-wing violence is incredibly more prevalent and more deadly in our country
Despite the lackluster Republican slate, the El Paso County Democratic Party will run an aggressive, people-powered campaign over the next 9 months. We remain enthusiastically committed to electing our candidates up and down the ballot and holding Greg Abbott and Donald Trump accountable.
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