With early voting underway and the Nov. 5 election days away, Republican incumbent District Attorney Bill Hicks has narrowed the fundraising gap with Democratic challenger James Montoya this month, according to campaign finance records filed this week.
Montoya and Hicks are vying for district attorney, a position which prosecutes state cases in the 34th Judicial District that includes El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties.
Early voting runs through Friday, Nov. 1.
Hicks, 54, was appointed to the position by Gov. Greg Abbott after his predecessor, Yvonne Rosales, resigned as she faced efforts to remove her from office in late 2022. He’ll appear on the ballot alongside Montoya, a 34-year-old El Paso County public defender and former prosecutor.
Since entering the race in the summer of 2023, Montoya has raised more $157,300 in donations as of Oct. 26. Montoya has also taken out $75,000 in loans and has spent almost $309,000 on the race, including about $105,000 of his own money, either with credit cards or his personal funds.
El Paso district attorney candidates Republican Bill Hicks, left, and Democrat James Montoya
But the bulk of the money raised and spent by Montoya was for the March primary and May runoff election, when he defeated Alma Trejo for the Democratic nomination. Since the primary, Montoya’s fundraising has slowed, bringing in $12,350 in donations since Sept 27.
Hicks didn’t face a primary challenger, so he didn’t have to fundraise or campaign earlier this year. He has generated about $100,000 in donations for his campaign over the last year.
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However, Hicks’ campaign has seen a fundraising burst since July 1, bringing in $70,800 since then. He received $14,300 in donations over the last month.
Hicks has spent about $74,000 on the election so far, including $3,000 of his own funds. And since July 1, Hicks’ campaign has spent over $55,500, outspending Montoya’s campaign by almost $18,000.
In the most recent campaign finance reports, Hicks’ campaign had $34,000 available, compared with $6,600 for Montoya’s campaign as of Oct. 26.
Hicks’ major donors over the last month include the El Paso Municipal Police Officers Association, which contributed $5,000, and the El Paso Sheriff’s Officers Association, which gave $1,000. The associations each gave Hicks $1,500 in February.
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The Republican Party of Texas – Hicks’ biggest donor – kicked in $2,250 to his campaign earlier this month after contributing $4,000 to Hicks in late September and $1,250 late last year.
Businessman Juan Mimbela, owner of the construction firm Mimbela Contractors, gave almost $2,100 to Hicks’ campaign Oct. 15.
Mimbela has now given nearly $5,100 this year to Montoya’s opponents; before giving to Hicks, he donated $3,000 to Trejo during the primary campaign. His donations are notable because Mimbela for years has helped support Daniel Villegas, who served 18 years in prison before his conviction on capital murder charges related to a 1993 shooting in El Paso was overturned in 2018.
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Montoya was the prosecutor in the 2018 trial against Villegas, who said earlier this year that Montoya wrongly fought to keep an innocent man jailed. Montoya has said there was probable cause to proceed with that trial, but he respected the verdict.
Over the last month, other significant local donations to Hicks’ campaign include business owner Yasser Murga, who chipped in $1,000, and attorney Ben Ivey, who gave $1,020.
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Salvador Perches has been Hicks’ second-biggest individual donor throughout the entire campaign. Perches, the owner of Perches Funeral Homes, gave Hicks $7,000 in three donations since last November.
Montoya’s biggest donors over the last month include Linda Estrada, a magistrate judge, who gave Montoya $2,000 this month after donating $3,000 to his campaign last July. Attorney James Rey donated $5,000 to Montoya last month following donations of $3,500 to his campaign last fall.
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Cesar Blanco, the Democratic state senator who represents El Paso, contributed $1,000 to Montoya earlier this month. Attorney Eduardo Lerma gave Montoya’s campaign $1,000, and so did Eduardo Solis, another attorney who has given Montoya’s campaign a total of $4,500 since last summer.
El Paso County sheriff’s race donations
Oscar Ugarte, the Democratic candidate for sheriff, is facing Republican Minerva Torres Shelton, a retired FBI agent who ran unopposed in the March Republican primary.
Ugarte has raised about $182,000 in his bid for El Paso County sheriff since January. He raised $11,400 in October.
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Ugarte, an El Paso County constable for Precinct 1, has also loaned his campaign $35,000.
His largest donors over the last month include $2,500 from Jobe and $3,000 from Mario Fuentes Jr. Businessman Richard Aguilar also gave Ugarte $1,000 earlier this month.
Torres Shelton has raised almost $9,000 for her campaign this month, mostly from in-kind contributions that covered campaign banners and text messages to voters. Her cash donations over the last month were largely small dollar contributions, except for a $1,000 from El Pasoan Cindy Cotham.
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Since entering the race, Torres Shelton has brought in a total of $49,000 in donations and also loaned her campaign $10,000.
Ugarte has spent over $155,600 on the race, dwarfing Torres Shelton’s total campaign spending of about $21,000 so far.
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