BROWNSVILLE, Texas(ValleyCentral) — Election Day for the Commissioner At-Larg “A” runoff race is June 17 and so far 1,600 people have cast their early vote.
The candidates running for this office are Tino Villareal and Susan Ruvalcaba.
Villareal is the Head football coach and athletic director at Saint Joseph Academy. He says some of his goals are to open a Boys & Girls Club in Brownsville and to make the city better through the quality of life and economic development.
“We want to make sure that we kind of reshift our focus into long-term development, which is Brownsville youth,” said Villarreal. “Because that’s truly how you replenish a city by building a pipeline of educated, trained, and ready leaders and that starts with youth development, which is one of the major parts of my platform. I think that leaks into everything else, quality of life, economic development.”
He added that there are plenty of new and big opportunities coming to Brownsville, which will continue to attract people.
“We have a lot of important things happening and groundbreaking things with SpaceX, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG); there’s a lot of opportunity coming to Brownsville. Either we’re going to step up to the challenge and as Brownsvillians, be the ones to fill these roles. Or either way, Brownsville is going to continue bringing in people from all over the country and all over the world because they see the opportunity here,” he said.
Susan Ruvalcaba is a registered nurse as well as a restaurant owner. She says some of her goals include increasing tourism in the city and better communication between the city and its leaders.
“My goal for the city of Brownsville is to reconnect with the citizens to bridge the gap of communication between our leadership and the citizens. Obviously, I would like to get back to the basic needs of the citizens, such as bus shelters and potholes and roads. I would also like to be very involved with economic development and redevelopment,” said Ruvalcaba.
Ruvalcaba highlighted the beauty of the city of Brownsville and how that in itself can be a revenue opportunity.
“I think that we need to develop some revenues so that we could have more tourists come in and visit our historical sites that we have here in Brownsville. We’re blessed with the zoo, with the island, with Mexico, and with a lot of history,” she said.
Voter turnout for the first round was about 10% and both candidates expressed their gratitude to the voters and encouraged the rest to cast their votes early in this round while they can.
Early voting will continue until Tuesday, June 13, and Election Day is Saturday, June 17.