As mentioned in our previous voter alert, the El Paso County Democratic Party has traditionally refrained from weighing in on non-partisan municipal races. However, in egregious cases, especially in this case when a candidate works against our community’s values, we have taken the extraordinary step of alerting the public. Now with the runoff ahead of us, the County Executive Committee of the El Paso County Democratic party overwhelmingly voted to endorse and urge voters to support Art Fierro.
We were compelled on sending our first voter alert when Ms. Rodriguez violated campaign finance in a shameless manner - https://elpasomatters.org/2022/10/17/el-paso-city-rep-claudia-rodriguez-election-campaign-filings-may-violate-finance-laws/).
Since then, she has advocated against providing humanitarian support for migrants in our community and has become a Fox News and Newsmax regular. Her multiple appearances on the Republican's cable news network have focused on her personal grievances with the mayor. In doing so, she has brought a very negative spotlight to our community on a network that pushes xenophobia, misinformation, and conspiracy theories. El Paso is a community that has historically had a positive history of embracing our location in the US-Mexico and treating migrants with dignity.
Ms. Rodriguez also voted against supporting a Women’s Commission for El Paso and voted against directing the El Paso Police department to make investigating abortions a low-level priority for the department. This measure would have prevented the El Paso Police Department from using its resources to target women who might have had an abortion.
While the other city council runoffs in December have candidates who consistently vote in the Democratic primaries, it is a well-known fact that Ms. Rodriguez has a history of voting in Republican Primaries. She currently represents and is running for a district that consistently votes for and elects Democratic candidates such as this November when Beto O’ Rourke received 66% of the vote and Congresswoman Veronica Escobar received 65%.