Elsa Reyes touts 20 years of City of Del Rio experience in council race

Elsa Reyes is making her case to District 1 voters on a simple argument: after two decades inside City of Del Rio government, she knows how the city works from the inside out. Reyes said her first post with the city was as a Transportation Coordinator, and she points to that long run as the reason she believes she can help residents more quickly and efficiently.

That insider pitch puts the focus on a familiar question in small-city politics: whether institutional memory leads to faster answers or just protects the way things have always been done. Reyes says her years in different city roles gave her a broad view of how services are delivered, not just how one department operates. She said, “I have a total of 20 years of experience working with the City of Del Rio. My initial post was as a Transportation Coordinator.”

Reyes is running against Jorge Vargas for the Del Rio City Council District 1 seat in the May 2 general election. The filing period for the 2026 election ran from January 14 through February 13, after the council called the election by Ordinance 2025-108 on December 16, 2025. Del Rio, a home-rule city with a population listed at 48,879, is the kind of midsize border community where a council member who knows the mechanics of city hall can have an outsized impact on day-to-day services.

Her campaign also leans on a project residents can see. Reyes says her city work helped contribute to the new Transportation Depot, a rehabilitation she describes as a visible result of public service experience. The depot, the historic Southern Pacific Railroad station built in the 1920s to replace an earlier wooden depot, now houses city offices and transportation functions as part of Del Rio’s Regional Transportation Center at 100 North Main Street.

The station project has had a winding path. City coverage said the depot rehabilitation was first set to seek proposals, but council later rejected all bids before moving forward. By 2024, the work was backed by a $1 million Texas Department of Transportation grant. A later upgrade at the station cost $3.8 million and added a 650-foot concrete platform and signage improvements.

The depot matters beyond preservation. It serves Amtrak, local buses and taxis, making it a daily-use piece of infrastructure as much as a downtown landmark. That is the kind of tangible outcome Reyes is banking on as she asks voters to reward experience inside city government with results outside it.