El Paso Matters – Alejandra Chávez faces three challengers for El Paso City Council District 1 seat

Incumbent city Rep. Alejandra Chávez will face two political newcomers and a former challenger in the November race to represent El Paso’s Westside and Upper Valley for the next four years.

The next representative for City Council District 1 will face rising costs for public safety while labor contracts for the police and fire unions are pending renewal; growing costs for other city services; and an at-times divided City Council that has struggled to come to a consensus over controversial decisions such as handling the contract for the Meta data center and how to fund the budget.

The City Council is nonpartisan and comprises eight district representatives who annually set a tax rate, adopt a budget and make wide-ranging policy decisions. City representatives also appoint a city manager, city attorney and chief internal auditor. They serve four-year terms and are paid $72,800 a year.

Chávez faces political newcomers Matthew James Kozik, a criminal defense attorney; Daniela Garcia, an administrative assistant for High Desert Native Plants; and Joseph “Sam” Armijo, a nuclear power consultant who ran unsuccessfully against her in 2024.

Early voting is Oct. 19-30.

The winners of the November election – or the December runoff if no one candidate receives more than 50% of the votes Nov. 3 – will take office in January and serve a four-year term. City elected officials can serve two four-year terms, but no more than 10 years. The seats for District 8, 6, and 5 are also up for election. Districts 2, 3, 4 and 7 and the mayor’s seat will be up for election in November 2028.

Chávez is filling an unexpired term vacated in 2024 by Brian Kennedy, who resigned to run for mayor. If she wins her reelection bid she will serve her first full term.

Here are the candidates running to represent the district:

Sam Armijo

Armijo, 87, is an El Paso native and former nuclear scientist who holds patents related to nuclear technology. He received a doctorate in material sciences from Stanford University.

Armijo declined an interview with El Paso Matters unless questions were sent via email. For fairness, El Paso Matters requests phone or in-person interviews with all candidates, and doesn’t make exceptions for those that decline.

Armijo attended St. Mary’s Grade School and then Cathedral High School and Texas Western College, according to his campaign website.

His campaign is largely centered on lower property taxes, restrained city spending and opposition to several major development projects such as the deck plaza and widening the Downtown portion of Interstate 10. The highway expansion is a Texas Department of Transportation project, rather than a city initiative.

The deck plaza project is being supported by the Downtown Deck Plaza Foundation under the Paso del Norte Community Foundation. The city in March entered an advanced funding agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation to contribute about $561,000 from the Downtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone No. 5 as a local match for the design.

In April, the city entered a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the county and foundation to incorporate structural future-proofing in the TxDOT project, though no further funding commitment was made by the city.

Armijo is opposed to using taxpayer dollars for the deck plaza, according to his website.

He also campaigned on focusing city spending on public safety, waste and storm management and street repairs, among other priorities.

Armijo proposes a $21 million cut to city spending, an amount equivalent to about 3.2% of the city’s $658.6 million general fund budget. However, some of his proposed reductions involve funding that cannot simply be redirected to general city operations.

His plan includes cutting $5 million from Destination El Paso, which is largely funded by hotel occupancy tax revenue restricted under state law to tourism-related expenditures. He also proposes cutting about $1 million from the El Paso International Airport though the airport is funded primarily through airline and passenger fees, parking, concessions, property leases and federal grants – not the city’s general fund.

Alejandra Chávez

Chávez, 48, is seeking her first full term in office. She is the former owner and chef of Thyme Matters restaurant on Mesa Street, which she operated for 20 years before selling the business in 2023. She is an El Paso native and graduated from Loretto Academy and the University of Texas at Austin. Her career includes working at the agricultural commodities giant Cargill and the now-defunct energy-trading company Enron.

She was elected in December 2024 and serves as mayor pro tem – a position designated to act in the mayor’s absence.

Chávez is largely campaigning on her City Council record, emphasizing infrastructure and public safety improvements, tighter oversight of city spending, responsible economic development and accessible constituent services.

“I am a person that comes from the hospitality industry, so for me, this is not like a nine-to-five job – I’m completely immersed in it, weekends, holidays, whatever it takes to make sure that the community feels like they really have an advocate for them for them at City Hall, and it’s been a privilege and an honor to do it,” Chávez said.

Chávez has cast votes on several contentious issues during her first term including the city budget, proposed cancellation of the incentive agreement for Meta’s Northeast El Paso data center, and the city’s contract with Flock Safety for automated license plate readers. She opposed earlier budget proposals before supporting a compromise, voted against initiating a process that could have ended the Meta agreement and initially opposed allowing the Flock Safety contract to expire without renewal.

LEARN MORE: City of El Paso’s Meta data center incentive agreement to remain in place

Chávez said she stands by her votes.

“I was comfortable adopting the initial (budget) proposal that came to us in May, but I was not comfortable adopting the proposal that was now being brought forward in August because of what I was hearing and seeing in my community with all these utility rate increases, people want affordability. People are really strapped, especially those that are living off of fixed incomes,” she said.

The budget proposal that was set to be voted on in August would have required the council to adopt the voter-approval tax rate – the highest tax rate a government can adopt without seeking voter-approval. The City Council, after hours of tense debate, voted to approve a $658.6 million general fund budget for fiscal year 2027 and a tax rate lower than the voter-approval rate that still will increase city tax bills by about $105 on the average-value home.

“I know that some of my community is very upset that I voted for any increase, but at the same time, we have a lot of state exemptions that came down from the state … those additional exemptions equate to less revenue being brought into us as a city, and we have to compensate that (loss of revenue) somehow,” she said.

The city cited voter-mandated personal property tax exemptions as one factor reducing revenue available for municipal services in fiscal 2027. City officials also pointed to rising public safety costs, other operating expenses and the expiration of federal relief funding as pressures on the budget.

Chávez voted in June against pursuing the possible termination of the city’s existing incentive agreement with Meta. She later supported developing a policy framework to establish stricter requirements for future data centers, though the framework would not prohibit them outright. Chávez said she opposes offering incentives for future data center developments.

“We’re going to have stronger zoning and local control because that is the biggest authority we have as a council is our zoning authority,” she said.

Chávez initially voted against a March proposal that would have allowed the city’s contract with Flock Safety to expire without renewal. In September, however, she supported directing the company to remove its automated license plate readers and requiring the cameras to be covered if they remained in place.

She also supported directing the city attorney to draft a resolution prohibiting future use of the technology unless the City Council approves a recommendation from council members, the city manager or the Police Department. The resolution is expected to return to council this month.

Daniela Garcia

Garcia, 37, is an El Paso native and administrative assistant at High Desert Native Plants. She graduated from Coronado High School and has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and innovative education from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.

Her career includes work as an education specialist in the city of Austin and as a loan officer.

Garcia said she is running for office, in part, because she was not happy with who had filed to run for the seat.

“I wasn’t super excited to go to the polls and vote for any other candidates…and I didn’t want to spend the next four years advocating for my community from the spectator side,” she said.

Garcia is campaigning on environmental protection, expanded public transportation and opposition to corporate subsidies. She wants the city to challenge its incentive agreement with Meta, opposes the proposed Downtown deck plaza and supports pursuing grant-funded solar energy programs.

She said the catalyst that made her realize she wanted to run for office however, was how the city has handled the Meta data center agreement.

Garcia wants to pause the project and wants the city to pursue legal action against Meta to end the Northeast El Paso data center agreement. She contends the company has not fulfilled promises associated with the project and argues that the city’s economic development agreement lacks adequate safeguards and enforcement provisions.

Garcia said Meta’s project was initially presented as running on solar, but later switched to a natural gas plant.

“These incentives were given to Meta under Meta’s false promises,” Garcia said.

The incentive agreement with Meta says the company was exploring solar panels, wind energy and geothermal cooling, but explicitly states it was “not obligated to pursue” those options.

Garcia said she would also push to have an outside law firm handle the litigation because the City Attorney’s Office was involved in the development of the agreement signed by the prior City Council.

She said she favors public transportation and existing green-space improvements over a new large-scale development such as data centers and the deck plaza. The proposed deck plaza would create a public park over Interstate 10 through Downtown El Paso. Project supporters say it would attract visitors, encourage development and create additional public space. The project has secured some funding commitments, but its full construction costs have not been covered.

“I see this deck plaza as another vanity project, a distraction, and something that is just going to be hemorrhaging money for El Paso,” Garcia said.

The Downtown Deck Plaza Foundation has shared renderings and preliminary schematic designs of what the space could like as well as feasibility studies, but the official design for the deck park is not complete.

Garcia said some initiatives she wants to focus on are expanding public transit by improving transit connections and accessibility, extending bus operating times to 2 a.m and around entertainment districts and improving accessibility through a potential city-supported rideshare program to help residents reach bus routes and local businesses more efficiently.

Garcia did not say how much she thought changing Sun Metro routes would cost. She said any money the city was considering using toward the deck plaza could fund the cost of extending bus services.

The city has not committed funding to the deck plaza.

Matthew James Kozik

Kozik, 45, grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, spending time both in the city and on his mother’s farm. He attended Ohio State University, studying political science and African American studies; got his law degree from the University of the District of Columbia; and also studied at the Tulane Law School.

His legal career has included representing people affected by Hurricane Katrina, working in legal clinics and on Capitol Hill, and serving as a federal government attorney and union representative.

Kozik served in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, serving on active duty and in the Army Reserve. He first came to El Paso in 2013 while stationed at Fort Bliss and returned permanently in 2019 to be near his spouse’s family. He now operates Matthew James, a law practice focused on criminal defense and immigration.

Kozik is largely campaigning on holding down taxes and utility bills, in part, by filing regular interventions, making developers pay more of growth-related costs, and strengthening government oversight of city spending. His campaign proposals include reviewing utility costs, reducing city expenditures and pursuing mediation over the existing Meta incentive agreement.

The city regularly intervenes when a utility proposes a rate increase. The Public Utility Commission of Texas has the final say in setting electric rates.

“Many people just are struggling to get by, and I believe it’s important for El Pasoans, and not just a few, to make sure that they’re represented in city government and that their voice is heard and protected,” Kozik said.

Kozik said he will not vote for a tax increase.

The city has repeatedly adopted lower tax rates over the years, but property tax bills have still increased because the city has generated more property tax revenue from higher property values.

He proposed first reviewing city spending, cutting unnecessary or unfilled positions, and finding efficiencies to cover costs. He also supports impact fees on developers for infrastructure, arguing those costs shouldn’t fall on residents through higher taxes or utility bills.

Kozik also proposes hiring an outside firm to review spending across city departments before the next budget is adopted. The city already has an internal audit function as well as an independent auditing firm.

Forvis Mazars LLP, is the city’s independent financial auditing firm that issued a “clean” opinion for the city’s fiscal year that ended in August 2025, according to the city’s most recent Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.

But Kozik wants an independent review to identify potential savings and unnecessary positions.

“If the audit comes back that we have 200 jobs that are not necessary (or) additional, you cut it – that’s how you run a business. That’s why I’m a profitable business that is able to pay my staff a living wage,” Kozik said.

Campaign finances

In the money race, Chávez has far exceeded her competitors having raised about $143,000 since January 2025. As the incumbent, Chávez has to file semi-annual campaign finance reports.

Armijo and Garcia did not report any campaign contributions for the July through October filing period. Armijo has loaned his campaign $27,000 and Kozik has loaned his campaign $10,000, according to the latest filings. Kozik reported $410 in campaign contributions. For the filing period from July to October, Chávez reported raising about $11,000.

Campaign finance reports show Chávez’s largest donors are area business leaders and developers that frequently contribute to local candidates, led by Stanley Jobe, owner of concrete supply company Jobe Materials contributing about $11,500; $6,000 from local chiropractor Thomas Georges; $5,000 from McDonald’s franchisee Richard Castro; $4,500 each from chairman and CEO of WestStar Bank Rick Francis and philanthropists Woody and Gayle Hunt; $3,500 from former Mayor Dee Margo and Adair Margo as well as engineer Ruben Chavez; $3,200 from engineer Linda Troncoso; and $3,000 from developer Douglas Schwartz.

She received $2,000 each from donors including businessman Paul Foster, businessman Richard Aguilar and developer Lane Gaddy. Businessman Josh Hunt, financial adviser Ted Houghton, financial adviser and businessman Leonard Goodman; and CEO of telecommunications company Flō Networks Miguel Fernandez were among the donors that gave $1,500 each; and developer Scott Schwartz, El Paso Electric CEO Kelly Tomblin, developer Jerry Rubin, and attorney and former city Rep. Steve Ortega were among the donors that contributed $1,000 each.

She also received $2,500 each from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC Voluntary Fund and the Texas Realtors Political Action Committee.

Disclosure: Steve Ortega has been a member of the El Paso Matters board of directors since February 2026. His contribution to Alejandra Chávez was made in August 2025, before he joined the board. El Paso Matters board members agree not to make political contributions while serving on the board.

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