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Villarreal Makes It Official: He Is Leaving Legislature To Run For San Antonio Mayor

Eileen Pace
/
TPR News

Soon after word began to circulate about San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro’s appointment to President Barack Obama's cabinet, state Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, began announcing his intentions to run for mayor.

Villarreal has now made it official with a fundraising email to his past supporters, telling them he is stepping down from the Legislature to organize a campaign to be the next mayor of San Antonio.

“It appears that the certainty of Mayor Castro is very high that he will be confirmed for his appointment to be the next secretary of HUD (Housing and Urban Development), and also given that there’s a fundraising deadline approaching, I’m reaching out to my past supporters,” Villarreal said of the move. 

Part of Villarreal’s mayoral platform will be to address the infrastructure needs for a city with a rapidly growing population.

“170,000 new people are coming to San Antonio every ten years," he said. "This is an incredible opportunity; it also raises challenges.”

For the past 15 years Villarreal has served in the Texas House, focusing on education-related issues and bills, a focus he plans to carry with him as he begins campaigning for mayor.

Ryan started his radio career in 2002 working for Austin’s News Radio KLBJ-AM as a show producer for the station's organic gardening shows. This slowly evolved into a role as the morning show producer and later as the group’s executive producer.