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May 11th Len’s Political Note #725 Gina Ortiz Jones San Antonio Mayor
2025 General Election
We have been talking about diversity a lot lately. The President, in particular, loathes diversity. He hates DEI, hates governmental or corporate efforts to track the extent to which leadership or staff or a study body is diverse. He and those who follow him disdain the idea of seeking equity. He thinks it nonsensical to include anyone in the decisions about leadership or staff or student bodies other than the bosses whose job it is to make those decisions.
He has a very small point, I think. Not so much of a point that it warrants ditching either the commitment to diversity or the commitment to hiring the very best candidates. People can focus on achieving numerical goals of diversity instead of working to hire the best candidate. See Len’s Letter #76.
If we were in the business of increasing diversity among mayors, Gina Ortiz Jones would be amazing. Gina Ortiz Jones has so many characteristics that make her a minority, if she relied only on people just like her, she could not get elected to anything. When she ran for Congress in 2020, she was attacked for pretending to be a Latina. Ortiz is her real name. She is the daughter of a single mother named Victoria Ortiz who had immigrated to the United States. It is just that her mother emigrated from the Philippines, a country that was no less of a colony of Spain than Mexico was.
Even that is a simplification. Gina Ortiz Jones identifies as an Ilacano, from an austronesian people that in, prehistoric times, traveled the ocean in boats from Taiwan to such places as the Philippines. There are quite a few Ilocano in the Philippines, not so many in Texas or in San Antonio.
San Antonio, with nearly 1.5 million people, is Texas’s second largest city; the country’s seventh largest city. It is a little smaller than Philadelphia, a little bigger than San Diego. Of the country’s fifty largest cities, only Fort Worth, Texas grew faster than San Antonio in the period between 2020 and 2023. Sixty-four percent of San Antonio’s 1.5 million people are Latino. Of other groups, 3.2% are Asian, 6.5 % are Black, 23.4% are white. Gina Ortiz Jones is, I guess, an Asian Latina.
San Antonio’s independent, progressive mayor, Ron Nirenberg, served four two year terms and is not running for reelection. Some think he is preparing to run for the US Senate against John Cornyn in 2026. He might be considered an Ashkenazi Filipino. His father’s Jewish antecedents were from Russia and Poland. His mother was part Filipino. His parents met when his father was in the Peace Corps in Malaysia where his mother lived. His mother was the descendent of an Anglo-Indian grandfather on one side and a Tagalog speaking musician on the other. Nirenberg grew up in Texas – in Austin, a Methodist.
Gina Ortiz Jones grew up in San Antonio. She went to Boston University on an Air Force ROTC scholarship, majored in East Asian studies, and then got a Master’s Degree in economics. Her ROTC status and subsequent status in the military was always precarious because she was a Lesbian living under what was the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy regarding homosexuals.
Despite the precarious situation, she had a successful career in the military. Gina Ortiz Jones earned an additional Master’s degree at the Army Command college, became an intelligence officer, was deployed to Iraq where she worked with a close air support operations group. Having been promoted to Captain, she retired from the military to return home to care for her mother who had cancer.
Gina Ortiz Jones retained her connections with military intelligence, worked for a consulting company in Texas, then for the Africa Command located in Germany. By 2008, she had joined the Defense Intelligence Agency, specializing in Latin America. By 2016, under Obama, she was a Director in the Office of the US Trade Representative. She continued in her position after Trump’s election, but resigned in June, 2017 discomforted by the Trump appointees around her.
Gina Ortiz Jones went home and ran for Congress, for the swing District 23, losing by a half point in 2018 and by four points in 2020. Joe Biden nominated her to serve as Undersecretary Secretary of the Air Force. She was confirmed and served until 2023 when she resigned. As a civilian, she got some additional political experience as she worked on an unsuccessful effort to support Democrats in their effort to break the Republican stranglehold on the Texas Supreme Court.
When she ran for Congress, she was on the receiving end of accusations that she had wanted the military to pay for transgender reassignment surgery. If she were running for a federal office now, she could explain that this issue has been settled temporarily by the US Supreme Court and will eventually be settled permanently. That was about the worst Republicans could say about her. Though some suggested she was falsely claiming to be from Latin America and others just called her “queer.” She gained 27% of the vote in the non-partisan primary for Mayor of San Antonio earlier this month. The general election will be on June 7.
Rolando Burgoa Pablos is her Republican opponent. In the field of ten or more candidates, he came in second with 16 percent of the vote. He has been an ambitious student and an ambitious man. Born in Mexico, he grew up in El Paso where he graduated from Cathedral High school. His candidacy is a good test to see if Latino men near the border are moving toward the Republicans. He graduated from St. Mary’s University, a Roman Catholic school, then got an MBA from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He kept on going, getting an MA in hotel and restaurant management from Hilton College at the University of Houston. (Later he would be part of an effort to create a Hilton College campus in San Antonio.) In 1998, at the age if 31, he earned a JD degree back at St. Mary’s.
Upon graduating, he became the General Counsel for a gaming technology firm, where he stayed for four years. In 2003, he established his own firm, mostly, presumably, representing gambling interests. In 2007, he was appointed Chairman of the Texas Racing Commission. Briefly, he served as a senior advisor to the enormous international law firm, Dentons, then was named a Public Utility Commissioner. In 2013, he became CEO of the Borderplex Alliance. With offices in two Mexican cities plus El Paso, the Alliance facilitates the movement of businesses into this Mexican and American region. They open their website claiming the creation of 25,000 jobs and having arranged for $1.7 billion worth of investment. Those figures do not distinguish between investments in Mexico and investments in the United States. They do note the many corporations that were helped.
And what do they promise, these two candidates?
Gina Ortiz Jones promises transparency, with monthly reports on the city’s website and monthly town halls. Her first three priorities are:
- Public Safety – focusing law enforcement on preventing violent crimes and creating an atmosphere where the public feels safe and the economy thrives;
- Public Housing – streamlining the approval process for construction of affordable housing and creating a homeowners program helping teachers, police, firefighters, nurses, and early childhood workers to purchase homes;
- Early Childhood Education and Child Care – Increasing the availability of childcare and early childhood education would be good for the city’s economy and improve school performance in later grades.
Rolando Pablos promises improvements in the city’s economy. His first three priorities are;
- Veterans’ Success. – strengthen, expand, and improve support programs for veterans and their spouses;
- Support Small Businesses – eliminate unnecessary regulations and strengthen the hospitality business;
- Economic development — bring world class businesses to San Antonio.
The great cultural issues of our time simply do not show up for either candidate. No one is quarreling about abortion. Both candidates are conscious of the impact of taxes. Neither spends time attacking immigration. El Paso is a city of immigrants – most of them from across the border. Both candidates are from immigrant families.
El Paso has a Democrat running against a Republican, a woman running against a man, a woman who is a military veteran running against a man who is a veteran lobbyist and deal maker, a woman committed to education and creating enough childcare so people can work running against a man committed to creating business opportunities so people have a place to work.
DONATE to Gina Ortiz Jones. The election runoff is on June 7. She is a good investment for Texas and America.
New York City, the country’s largest city, also has a mayoral election. The primary date is June 24. It is probable that the winner of the Democratic primary will become the mayor (though not certain because the incumbent is running as an independent). See Len’s Political Note #722.
New York City has ranked voting in its primary. My advice to New York City Democratic readers is to fill in all five permissible rank slots and to leave Andrew Cuomo off the ballot entirely. My advice to all readers. Help out all five of the candidates I recommend. Donate now.
Adrienne Adams. My #1 rank. DONATE
Currently, Speaker of the City Council, she has been effective in organizing the Council and effective in dealing with a mayor who was indicted for corruption. She is a Center/Left candidate.
Brad Lander. My #2 rank. DONATE
Currently, the City Comptroller, formerly an activist City Councilman who was frequently arrested at demonstrations. He is a Left/Center candidate.
Zellnor Myrie. My Number #3 Rank DONATE
Currently a state Senator, he was part of a movement to oust Democratic Senators who, in collaboration with then Governor Cuomo, had ensured that Republicans controlled the state Senate even when they were a minority. He is a pro-tenant, anti gun Democrat.
Scott Stringer. My #4 Rank. DONATE
A former Assemblyman, former City Comptroller, an ally of Congressman Jerrold Nadler, he has deep connections with the City’s political history. He was damaged by an unsubstantiated sexual harassment claim in the 2021 mayoral campaign. He is a Center/Left candidate.
Zohran Mandami. My #5 Rank. DONATE
A state Assemblyman. His dad is an internationally known academic. His mom is an internationally known film maker. He has been a follower of Bernie Sanders and describes himself as a Democratic Socialist. He has been running second in the polls to former governor Andrew Cuomo.
For Governor of Virginia this November.
Abigail Spanberger is a former Member of Congress and former member of the CIA. The term limited Republican governor cannot run for reelection, but his Lt. Governor, extremist Winsome Earl-Sears is the Republican candidate. While Abigail Spanberger appears to be the favorite in this contest, at this stage she needs our support. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #705.
