El Paso City Council District 1 seat opened on July 11, 2024 when Brian Kennedy filed to run for the mayor’s seat in the upcoming November 5 election. That same day the first candidate to run for the open seat filed their campaign treasurer appointment. On Monday, a second candidate filed to run for the same seat.
The two candidates running to replace Brian Kennedy are Alejandra “Ale” Chávez who filed on July 11 just after Kennedy’s announcement opened the seat for an election. The second candidate to file was Monica Reyes who filed her treasurer’s designation on Monday morning.
Chávez is the owner and chef of Thyme Matters. Chávez was born in Houston but came to El Paso with her parents when she was three years old. Her father, a physician, and her mother, a journalist were both born in México. After leaving Enron as a risk manager in 2002, Chávez returned to El Paso and opened Thyme Matters in 2004. Enron filed for bankruptcy in 2001 after an accounting controversy made headlines.
Monica Reyes is the second candidate to file paperwork for the District 1 seat. Monica Reyes is the Executive Director of Student Support Services at Canutillo Independent School District (CISD). Reyes is the daughter or former congressman Silvestre Reyes.
The filing date to run for the upcoming municipal races opened on Saturday and will close on August 19. In addition to the mayor and District 1 seats, there are four other city council seats open. They are the seats for districts 2, 3, 4 and 7.
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As of this morning, Josh Acevedo is the only candidate running for the District 2 seat. Acevedo will be defending the seat he won in January in the runoff election against Verónica Carbajal.
For the District 3 seat there are currently five contenders running. They are Fabiola Arellano, Kenneth Bell, Deanna Maldonado-Rocha, Jose Rodriguez and Jesse Romero.
In the race for the District 4 seat, four candidates, including the incumbent, Joe Molinar have announced they are running for the seat. Challenging Molinar are Sissy Byrd, Cynthia Trejo and Wesley Lawrence.
There are three candidates that have announced they are running for the District 7 seat. They are Fabiola Campos-Lopez, Lily Limón and Alan Mathew Serna.