Texas › El Paso County › County Judge
2 candidates are tracked for County Judge on the November 3, 2026 ballot: Ricardo Samaniego and Minerva Torres Shelton. Candidate information follows official El Paso County election filings; verify with the official election office linked below.
March 3 primary result: Ricardo Samaniego was unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Republican Minerva Torres Shelton won over Guadalupe "Lupe" Giner with about 62% of the vote in the Republican primary. Samaniego and Torres Shelton meet on the November 3 ballot, per the county's official March 3 sample ballot and primary returns.
Samaniego is the incumbent El Paso County Judge and has experience leading multimillion-dollar industrial development projects in the U.S. and Mexico, per his campaign site.
2026 priorities
- Expand healthcare access, including a planned Healthcare Hub near the Reynolds entrance, per the campaign site
- Grow the aerospace and manufacturing sectors through partnerships with UTEP and industry, per the campaign site
- Support agriculture as an economic driver in rural parts of the county, per the campaign site
Source: candidate campaign site, roster verified 2026-09-04.
Campaign site →
Torres Shelton is a retired FBI field supervisor and former El Paso police officer with 28 years in law enforcement, per her campaign site and El Paso Matters. She was the 2024 Republican nominee for El Paso County sheriff.
2026 priorities
- Government accountability and transparency in Commissioners Court decisions, per the campaign site
- Fiscal responsibility, directing tax dollars to core services, per the campaign site
- Audit and test county emergency-response preparedness, per the campaign site
Source: candidate campaign site, roster verified 2026-09-04.
Campaign site →
