El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego has won a third term, turning back a challenge from Republican Minerva Torres Shelton in a race that centered on the county's finances and a jail overtime budget crunch. The Democratic incumbent coasted to victory in the Nov. 3 election, with vote tallies showing a lopsided margin in his favor.
According to El Paso Matters, Samaniego received 70% of the early votes while Torres Shelton received 30%. A separate tally reported by Yahoo put Samaniego at 125,156 votes, or 69.64%, with Torres Shelton drawing 54,574 votes, or 30.36%. As first reported by KFOX, Samaniego was projected to win the race with 70% of the vote based on unofficial results.
Both campaigns made county finances the central issue heading into Election Day, with Torres Shelton, an Army veteran, former El Paso police officer and retired FBI supervisory agent, promising to direct a line-by-line audit of the county budget to root out duplicate, excessive or unnecessary spending. She argued that controlling that kind of spending could help ease residents' property tax burden and said she wanted to improve government accountability and transparency. Samaniego, for his part, pointed to his experience in office and said he wanted to continue work on projects already underway.
Jail Overtime Costs Loomed Over the Campaign
The budget debate was shadowed by a nearly $8 million Sheriff's Office deficit tied to overtime at the county jails, according to the same El Paso Matters report. Samaniego tied those budget concerns directly to efforts to reduce the jail population, saying that lowering the number of people held in county jails would address overtime concerns and reduce the need for extra staffing costs.
The overtime strain had been building for months. The outlet's reporting from September found that overtime spending at the jails had nearly doubled over the prior two years even as the average daily jail population fell about 10%, dropping from roughly 2,760 in fiscal year 2024 to about 2,596 in 2025 and down to around 2,460 more recently. Commissioners Court responded on Sept. 14 by unanimously approving a nearly $143 million Sheriff's Office budget, about 5% above the current year's spending, though the county did not authorize an increase to the overtime budget itself — instead setting aside roughly $9 million in a contingency fund to cover potential overtime costs.
Samaniego Lays Out Priorities for a Third Term
Looking ahead, Samaniego said his focus going forward is economic development, including bringing more businesses and higher-paying jobs to El Paso County, and he has argued that expanding the commercial tax base could help reduce the burden on homeowners. He also cited expanding the county's film industry, strengthening relationships with Mexico, and improving access to health care and mental health care as priorities for his next term, per El Paso Matters.
Torres Shelton said she will not run for elected office again. The county judge presides over Commissioners Court, which includes four county commissioners, and is one of five voting members who set the county's annual tax rate, adopt its budget and make policy decisions. The El Paso County Elections Department lists all five current Commissioners Court members as Democrats, and Tuesday's results extended that trend down the ballot.
Democrats Sweep Commissioner Races
In the Precinct 2 commissioner race, Democrat Miguel Teran received 78% of the early votes against Republican Thomas M. Matt Sistrunk's 22%. In Precinct 4, Democrat Annette Griego, a nurse practitioner, took about 67% of the early vote, while Republican Leonard Arcos, a military veteran, received 33%.
The newly elected officials are expected to oversee county spending, property taxes and services starting in January 2027. Samaniego's win caps a rematch of sorts for the Republican side after Torres Shelton won her party's primary with 62% of the vote over Guadalupe Giner's 38% back in March.
