San Benito school board race drives county's second busiest polling site

Fernando Del Valle, Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, Texas
Updated ·4 min read

May 1—SAN BENITO — A hotly contested school board election whose outcome could tip the panel's balance of power turned San Benito's Community Building into Cameron County's second busiest polling site during an eight-day early voting period.

Meanwhile, in Harlingen's school board election, 1,184 residents had cast ballots during the early voting period which opened April 22.

In northern Cameron County, San Benito's two warring factions turned the school board election into the area's hottest contest.

At the close of early voting Tuesday, 1,648 residents had cast ballots at the Community Building, which ranked behind the Brownsville Public Library, the county's hottest polling site, where 4,415 voters cast early ballots in the city of 191,774 residents.

"It was, by far, the second-most active site," Remi Garza, Cameron County's elections administrator, said Wednesday, referring to San Benito's Community Building. "When you have a lot of competitive races and candidates are actively campaigning, the voters respond."

In San Benito's school board election, El Ranchito's Precinct 17, home to 5,064 registered voters, helped drive turnout at the Los Indios Community Center, the district's second-busiest polling site where where 54 residents cast ballots.

"It's one of the highest numbers of registered voters in Cameron County," Garza said, referring to El Ranchito's Precinct 17. "It's one of the fastest-growing areas in Cameron County."

In the area's hottest school board race, Ariel Cruz-Vela, the San Benito school board's vice president, faces Theresa Servellon, the district's past superintendent, for the board's Place 1 seat.

In a race that could tip the board's balance of power, Cruz-Vela, a pharmacist, is bidding for a second term as a leader within the board of trustees' new majority.

The contest is pitting her against Servellon, whom the board's majority suspended last September, with Cruz-Vela casting a vote in the panel's 4-3 split decision.

Servellon, who resigned about three weeks later after a year on the job, had worked as interim superintendent for about six months following a career in which she served as a longtime district administrator.

In the heavily contested race for the board's Place 2 seat, board member Mario Silva, a sales representative, faces former trustee Victor Eloy Rosas, a retired firefighter, and Crystal Hernandez, the Harlingen school district's GEAR UP facilitator.

In the election's Place 3 contest, board member Oscar Medrano faces Israel "Buddy" Villarreal III, a Navy veteran and business owner.

Across San Benito, the heated school board races helped drive voters to the polls in the city election, where controversy surrounds the commission's lone contested race.

In the clash for past Commissioner Carol Lynn Sanchez's Place 4 seat, former Commissioner Rene Villafranco faces Joe Navarro, a consultant.

Villafranco, who led the commission's past majority for 15 years before losing his seat to Commissioner Deborah Morales last May, is battling Navarro's campaign, which carries much of the new commission's support.

In April, the commission's new majority called for Sanchez's ouster from office, voting to declare her position vacant because she was living outside the city limits, finding her "unqualified to hold office in the city of San Benito" based on a City Charter clause.

After her ouster from office, Sanchez, a strong voice on the commission's past majority, said she would support Villafranco's bid to return to the board.

In Place 3, Commissioner Pete Galvan is running unopposed, bidding for his second full term after first winning election in 2020.

In November 2020, Galvan, a pharmacist who serves as the commission's mayor pro-tem, entered into politics after winning an unexpired term which former Commissioner Rick Guerra had left open after he resigned to run for the mayor's gavel.

Then in May 2021, Galvan won his first three-year term with a landslide victory over former Mayor Ben Gomez and a political newcomer.

In Harlingen, the school board election focuses on a lone contested race in which Bobby Muniz, a pharmacist who served as the board's past president, faces Benjamin Esquivel for board's Place 4 seat.

In Places 5 and 6, board members Dr. Nolan Perez and Dr. Belinda Reininger, the board's president, are running unopposed.