El Paso social worker Angelica Rodriguez has accused her ex-boyfriend, City Council candidate Jesse Moreno, of punching her in the face during a domestic violence incident last year.
Rodriguez, who also works for County Commissioner David Stout, published a statement on her private Instagram account Tuesday night – a decision to reclaim her story after rumors of a physical altercation spread through city and county governments, she told El Paso Matters in a phone interview Wednesday.
Moreno is competing against incumbent city Rep. Art Fierro in the December runoff election to represent the Eastside’s District 6. He didn’t directly respond to Rodriguez’s accusations Wednesday night.
“I recognize the seriousness of the concerns that have been raised regarding my past relationship, but out of respect for everyone involved, I’m not going to discuss the details of a deeply personal matter in a public forum,” Moreno told El Paso Matters in a phone interview.
“Domestic violence is a serious issue that affects far too many families in El Paso,” he said. “It leaves lasting consequences, I understand, and every person who comes forward deserves to be heard and treated with dignity and respect.”
Rodriguez said she and Moreno were conversing in Moreno’s car at Memorial Park in late December 2025 when she asked about him cheating on her. Moreno grew agitated and began yelling at her, causing her to shut down, which made him more upset, Rodriguez said. He then threw his glasses on the dashboard, smashed his car stereo and punched her in the face, she said.
“I was just very scared,” Rodriguez said. “I didn’t know what to do. My immediate reaction was to say, ‘Sorry, forget I even asked any of those questions.’ I just wanted to go home.”
Rodriguez said she did not file a police report.
She said that was the first time he hit her, but there were other occasions over the course of their three-year relationship when he yelled at her both in public and in private.
City staff aware of accusations
Moreno, 25, is set to face Fierro, 64, in the Dec. 12 runoff after neither candidate won more than 50% of the vote in the November general election. District 6 encompasses much of the 79936 ZIP code, including neighborhoods around Marty Robbins Park, Montwood High School and a small portion of the Lower Valley.
Moreno, who studies economics at the University of Texas at El Paso, is a former City Council staffer who worked for District 3 Reps. Cassandra Hernandez and Deanna Maldonado-Rocha, who said he resigned in September.
Rodriguez, 29, is a graduate student enrolled in the master of social work program at UTEP. She served as president of UTEP’s College Democrats chapter in the 2024-25 school year.
UTEP College Democrats published an Instagram Stories post Tuesday saying the organization stands behind Rodriguez and will release a statement in the coming days regarding the group’s previous endorsement of Moreno.
Rodriguez and Moreno met at UTEP and Rodriguez volunteered for the District 3 City Council office, where Moreno worked. Moreno filed his appointment for campaign treasurer on July 31, months after Rodriguez said they had broken up and not long after city staff became aware of the punching accusation.
Rodriguez said a staffer for Maldonado-Rocha approached her expressing concern after Moreno yelled at her at a District 3 community meeting in early July, and that was when Rodriguez disclosed to the staffer that Moreno had previously punched her.
Maldonado-Rocha said she became aware later that week of a possible physical altercation between Moreno and Rodriguez, but that she didn’t know the specifics. The city representative said she asked the City Attorney’s Office and Human Resources Department how to proceed, and was told at that point it was difficult to follow through with any actions if the incident did not occur on city property and if there was no police report.
“Anytime we have situations of allegations of domestic abuse, it should be taken very seriously,” Maldonado-Rocha said. “While I don’t know what the situation between her and Jesse is … I feel for all victims when it comes to domestic abuse. Not that it’s ever happened to me, but I have very close friends and family it’s happened to and it takes a toll on them, it’s very stressful and people can be very cruel because they feel like they know what’s taken place.”
‘I felt like I was hiding this secret’
Rodriguez said she and Moreno broke up at the beginning of this year, but they remained in contact and she continued to volunteer for District 3. She said it was hard to leave him because she’s also active in El Paso politics and they ran in similar circles.
She said Moreno also developed a bond with her now 9-year-old son.
“Being a single mom, it was hard to end a relationship where he supported me and my son, and he was never harmful to my son,” Rodriguez said. “Back then, if I called him to drop off clothes for him at school, he would go. He would pick up my son from school.”
The trauma from their relationship resurfaced during election season, she said.
Moreno asked her repeatedly to join his bid for office by block walking, holding signs, posting photos of them together – all without acknowledging he hurt her, Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez declined to campaign for him, she said.
“He would always start out with the conversation that if I tell anyone this happened, I’d be committing political suicide on his behalf,” Rodriguez said. “He told me not to acknowledge it, ‘Don’t comment, it’s a private relationship matter.’”
Moreno called Rodriguez his “former” girlfriend and said “our relationship deteriorated after I declined her request to serve as my campaign manager.”
But Rodriguez said incidents of verbal and mental abuse had been building up to the incident of physical abuse. She recalled feeling unsafe when he yelled at her at a College Democrats meeting because she disagreed with him outing a Republican student’s wife for being undocumented.
Whenever Moreno yelled at her, she would shut down for fear of saying the wrong word that would anger him further, Rodriguez said.
“I think the hardest part is I could have easily walked away,” Rodriguez said. “And I understand that mentally, I understand that with my background and my schooling, but it’s hard to explain to people. … I’m an activist, I’m out in the community standing up for people who don’t have a voice, but it’s been a reality check, I didn’t have a voice for myself in those times.”
Rodriguez said she decided to post a statement on Instagram after a discussion in her macro social work class about the future of leadership. Rodriguez felt like she was hiding a secret and only pretending to be a leader. She questioned how she could be an advocate to the community if she was “lying by painting a picture that everything was fine.”
“After that lecture we had in class, I realized I know my own worth,” she said. “Before I was worried about him, worried about how I would be perceived.”
While posting on Instagram “gave people access to a very private matter,” Rodriguez said she wanted to stop ignoring what happened and stand up for herself, especially after rumors about the physical abuse spread among city and county employees. The gossip made her feel like she had lost control of her own story and “nobody cared about my safety, nobody cared about my feelings.”
“Nobody could share my story but me,” she said about her decision to come forward. “That’s the power I had.”
Second domestic violence incident raised in City Council races
Under Texas election law, Moreno is allowed to withdraw from the runoff by Nov. 19 by submitting a written withdrawal request to the El Paso City Clerk’s Office. Fierro would automatically be elected to the District 6 seat for a second four-year term.
Rodriguez said since putting out a statement, people have questioned the timing and accused her of being an operative for the Fierro campaign. She said she does not support Fierro and is not trying to persuade people to not vote for Moreno.
“I’m not here for anybody to be on my side, or not vote for him. I simply want to show up for myself the same way I show up for everyone,” she said.
The City Council will canvass the Nov. 3 election results during a special meeting on Monday, Nov. 16. The council will also vote to call for the runoff election for Districts 1, 6 and 8.
Moreno is the second El Paso City Council candidate to face accusations of domestic violence during this year’s campaign. El Paso police arrested Arturo Alluin on suspicion of domestic violence in 2022, according to police records obtained by El Paso Matters as part of a background check on candidates.
Alluin, who ran for the District 8 City Council seat, was also on the ballot for the Nov. 3 election but failed to advance to the runoff in that race.
Alluin allegedly choked his girlfriend and pushed her against a bathroom wall, causing her to hit her head and fall to the floor, according to the police affidavit in the incident report and a video of the victim’s statement to the police. Alluin also slapped her multiple times in the face, the report alleges.
Alluin didn’t respond to El Paso Matters’ questions about the allegations.
Rodriguez said she hopes that by sharing her story, UTEP students and other people she’s worked with can understand that “politics doesn’t have to be ugly, it doesn’t have to be this toxic environment. It’s OK to walk away even if you are both in the field.”
“I just had to say out loud, I’m a survivor,” Rodriguez said. “I’m a survivor of him.”
Domestic violence hotlines
In El Paso, the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence provides crisis intervention, emergency shelter and other support services and offers a 24-hour hotline at the phone number 915-593-7300.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800-799-7233.
The post Ex-girlfriend alleges domestic violence by District 6 runoff candidate Jesse Moreno appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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