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One of San Antonio's longest serving mayors will formally announce a run for Bexar County judge this Saturday,
Ron Nirenberg is expected to be joined by family and friends at the Backyard on Broadway to start his bid to unseat incumbent Peter Sakai, who recently made his intentions clear that he is running to remain in office.
Nirenberg has been teasing such a run for a while, perhaps in part to see if local Democrats would denounce such a challenge to Sakai, who is still relatively new, having taken office in 2023.
The former mayor, who served as the top elected official of the city from 2017 to 2025, posted a video to his Instagram account about his future.
"Saturday, I'll have something to share with you," he said. "Something I've been thinking about a long time, and I want you to be there to hear it first. Because what's next is not about me, it's about us"
Sakai, a longtime judge who oversaw Bexar County Children's Court, issued a statement touting his own record since taking office after learning of Nirenberg's plans.
"At one point Ron's bags were packed for DC. At one point he was running for governor, then senator. Now, despite at one point telling the 'Express-News' he wasn't running for county judge, it's clear Ron never found the greener pastures he dreamed of," the statement began.
"I, on the other hand, am not searching for something to do. We're doing it.
We created partnerships with our schools to address mental health and affordable housing. We invested in the NextGen flood alert system to avoid ever repeating the tragedies of June 12th," the statement continued—referring to the fatal Beitel Creek flood disaster that killed 13 people.
He continued in the statement to explain upcoming goals during challenging economic times: "We're bringing new, high-paying jobs to Bexar County, while convening our public health and safety net providers to work together as the federal government shirks their responsibilities."
The statement from Sakai also accused Nirenberg of splitting local Democrats.
"It's a free country, at least for now. But considering the challenges we face, it's disappointing that some would rather start fights within our Democratic Party than work together to lift up our community," said Sakai.
Jon Taylor, the chair of UT-San Antonio's Department of Political Science and Geography, said it does not bode well for Sakai that local Democrats did not speak out against a run by Nirenberg.
He suspects there may be a movement behind the scenes in the party, with the 48-year-old Nirenberg favored over the 71-year-old Sakai.
"This may be just another example of where a younger guard in the party is encouraging older elected office officials to basically say 'it's time to step aside.'"
Taylor said Nirenberg's next political move makes sense because he can leverage his "quite positive" popularity he had as mayor into another local race immediately. And he added Nirenberg is not well known enough to win a state or federal office at the moment.
Taylor said there is also a history of San Antonio mayors becoming Bexar County judges, with Nelson Wolff being the most modern example.
