Republican Jorge Borrego bailed on the League of Women Voters’ candidate forum Wednesday evening — forcing the group to cancel one of the only opportunities voters have to hear from both candidates ahead of a highly contested Texas House race.
Borrego and Democrat Kristian Carranza are running to replace state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio) in Texas House District 118.
In gerrymandered Texas, it’s one of the only state legislative districts that remains competitive enough to go either way in November, and Democrats consider it a must-win in their efforts to gain power in the Texas House.
In a nod to the race’s significance, roughly 60 people were waiting at 6 p.m. in the Sydney Board Room at Brooks City Base on Wednesday evening, including some of Borrego’s supporters.
Around 6:20 p.m., however, the League of Women Voters’ San Antonio Chapter President Jill Tolbert came out and announced that they wouldn’t be able to continue as planned.
“I am so thrilled that so many people came out to see a candidate forum tonight … but Jorge Borrego is a no-show,” Tolbert told the crowd. “The League rules are that we cannot proceed with just one candidate.”
Borrego’s supporters in the audience spoke to him on the phone and said he got stuck at an event on the other side of town. When they contacted him, he said he wouldn’t be able to make it in time.
After, Borrego followed up to say he’d had an “incident” that he wasn’t able to resolve, but had tried to contact the League earlier in the day.
Event organizer Claire Oxley confirmed later Wednesday night that she’d received an email from him saying he wouldn’t be able to make it at 4:13 p.m. She’d said she’d already left for the event at that point, didn’t have access to her email until she got home.
His email said the group could “try to reschedule for another date.”
The high-profile race has put a spotlight on both young candidates — Carranza is 35 and Borrego is 30.
Last month Borrego found himself apologizing for a slew of crude social media posts dating back to when he was in high school, and they haven’t appeared together at an event since, according to Carranza’s campaign.
So far, Carranza and Borrego have done one forum together, a closed Aug. 4 event that the South Texas Business Partnership hosted for its members. They don’t currently have any others scheduled before the Nov. 3 election.
Reached Wednesday night after the no-show, Borrego said he’s still open to it.
“I know many voters are eager to hear from both sides, so I would like to offer an opportunity to debate Carranza twice before election day, first in Spanish and then in English,” Borrego said.
Borrego worked in the Texas Legislature and for an Austin-based think tank before this race, but he’s a relative newcomer when it comes to local politics.
He beat out local trial attorney Desi Martinez, who had Lujan’s backing, for the GOP nomination.
After canceling the event Wednesday evening, the League of Women Voters left the premises.
“Lots of volunteers put in effort to make this happen,” Oxley said on her way out the door.
Then a representative from Raise Your Hand Texas, which partnered on the forum, took Borrego’s seat and asked Carranza a few education policy questions for the audience.
“I’m a little disappointed that you, as the voters, didn’t get the opportunity to hear from your two candidates,” Carranza said. “This is such an important election. This is such an important district.”
Arthur A Gonzalez, 42, stuck around for a bit before leaving disappointed. He’d been looking for a chance to meet the candidates in person, and said he didn’t know of any other opportunities.
“I wanted to see both of them in the same place,” he said. “That’s what the appeal was to me.”
