Minerva Torres Shelton is a Republican

I really dislike when people pretend to be something they aren’t. I especially hate it when they do so to people in the Lower Valley. Minerva Torres Shelton has been playing a shell game with voters and hasn’t been honest with them about her political affiliation. 

Because I can’t stomach her fooling people in The Valley, I think its important that we talk about her candidacy and what it means for working people in The Valley. 

If you see her campaign material, there is something missing. 

The word REPUBLICAN. In fact I chose the title to this piece because you won't see her admit to being a Republican on any of her material. 

Now that’s interesting.

Because when people are proud of something, they usually don’t hide it. They put it on everything. Yard signs, mailers, Facebook posts your tia shares at 6am with three American flags and a prayer emoji.

But here? Quiet.

And there’s a reason for that.

Because once you say “Republican” out loud in El Paso, you don’t just get a label. You get the full policy bundle that’s been rolling out since Donald Trump took office.

And she’s not running for a courtroom job.

She’s trying to run the county.

That means budgets, priorities, public health, emergency response. Basically, everything that actually affects your day-to-day life.

So yeah, the label matters.

She reached out to a mutual friend because I was telling everyone on social media that she was a Republican and she wanted to minimize the damage and asked to meet with me. I ended up meeting with both Republican candidates for County Judge. I didn’t say anything about the candidacy because I left that for the GOP to sort out. 

Well now they have. So now she’s fair game. 

Minerva’s policy knowledge is nearly non-existent. She couldn’t answer basic policy questions and pretty much said she had to wait until she was in office to figure some things out. Her lack of policy knowledge along should be a disqualifier for voters - but she not only didn’t know anything about policy - she didn’t want to touch the GOP platform with a 10 foot pole. 

Because she knows she can’t have it both ways. She is probably completely aware of how unpopular his policies and MAGA are to El Pasoans. 

In fact, there are some big time MAGA people tied to a candidate in a Democratic run-off that I will be highlighting soon. 

Minerva is going to try to downplay the MAGA agenda by saying it doesn’t have anything to do with county government, but that is a fat lie. Political parties are about policy priorities and governing philosophies. Point blank - the GOP agenda is anti-working family, anti-middle class, and pro-billionaires. 

I don’t know about you - but Paul Foster has enough Republican politicians that have his back - he doesn’t need a county judge in his pocket too. 

Immigration, working class families, the middle class, education, minority rights, women, and veterans - all core groups that feel the local impact of Trump’s policies. 

And Minerva can’t run from it as much as she’d like to. She’s branded with the proverbial scarlet letter. 

Look, you can hide the “R” like it’s a bad tattoo from spring break, but it’s still there. And in a place like El Paso, where policy shows up in your paycheck, your kid’s school, and whether your neighbor feels safe calling the county for help, that matters. Because electing a closet Republican here isn’t some bold experiment, it’s like putting a Whataburger manager in charge of Chico’s Tacos and acting surprised when everything on the menu starts tasting different. At some point, people are going to notice.