Jose Antonio Menendez (born March 11, 1969) is a member of the
Texas Senate
The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per cons ...
for
District 26
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
.
A member of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
, he is a former member of the
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abou ...
for District 124. He won a
special election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-larges ...
on February 17, 2015, for the state Senate, to replace
Leticia Van de Putte
Leticia Rosa Magdalena Aguilar Van de Putte
( San Miguel; born December 6, 1954)
is an American politician from San Antonio, Texas. She represented the 26th District in the Texas Senate from 1999–2015. From 1991 to 1999, Van de Putte was a me ...
. She resigned to run, unsuccessfully as it developed, against the short-term incumbent,
Ivy Taylor
Ivy Ruth Taylor (born June 17, 1970) is the president of Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi, and the former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, from 2014 through 2017. The former politician and urban planner was a nonpartisan officeholder, alth ...
, for
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
of
San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, s ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. Menendez handily defeated fellow Democratic State Representative
Trey Martinez Fischer
Trey Martinez Fischer (born June 6, 1970), legally Ferdinand Frank Fischer III, is a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives who represents the San Antonio-based 116th District, serving since 2019. He previously held this seat fr ...
for the right to succeed Van de Putte. Even though Menendez and Fischer remain political opponents, their relationship appears to have been civil.
Menendez served in the Texas House from 2001 to 2015. Prior to his service in the State House, he was a member of the
San Antonio City Council
The San Antonio City Council is the legislative arm of the municipal government of the city of San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas. It consists of 10 members elected from single-member districts.
San Antonio has a council-manager form of gove ...
for District 6.
[
]
Background
Jose Menendez was born in San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to:
Places Argentina
* San Juan Province, Argentina
* San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province
* San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province
* San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...
in Hidalgo County in South Texas. He graduated in 1987 from Central Catholic Marianist High School
Central Catholic High School, is a Catholic, all-male, non-boarding college preparatory school located in the River North District of Downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA, in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio.
History
The school began as ...
.[ Four years later, he graduated from ]Southern Methodist University
, mottoeng = "The truth will make you free"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = SACS
, academic_affiliations =
, religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church
, president = R. Gerald Turner
, prov ...
in University Park, Texas, where he received his Bachelor of Business Administration
Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanced ...
and a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
in Latin American Studies.[ He returned to San Antonio, where he took over his family business in 1991.
Menendez and his wife, Cehlia Newman-Menendez, have three children: Dominic Newman-Menendez, Victoria Newman-Menendez, and Austin Newman-Menendez.][ Menendez and his family reside in San Antonio and Austin, Texas.][
]
Political career
Menendez was appointed to the San Antonio Zoning Commission for District 6 in 1994. In 1997, after a heated campaign, he was elected to the District 6 seat on the city council.[
In 1999, Menendez was re-elected to the council with more than 84 percent of the vote. He served on the Small Business, International, and Ethics committees. He also was the chairman of the City's Community Revitalization Action Group (CRAG).][ In 2000, ]term-limited
A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of Term of office, terms an Incumbent, officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in Presidential system, presidential and semi-presidential system ...
on the council, he ran for the state House of Representatives and was sworn into his first term in 2001.[ As a representative, Menendez headed the House Committee on Defense and Veterans' Affairs, which put him in contact with thousands of Texas veterans and provided a basis for his successful run thereafter for the Texas Senate.
Menendez won election to a full term in the state Senate in the Democratic primary on March 1, 2016, when he defeated his former opponent, Trey Martinez Fischer,][ who, this time gave up the District 116 House seat, Fischer held, to run for the Senate. A number of ]lobbyists
In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...
and political action committees which had supported Martinez Fischer switched allegiance to the incumbent Menendez, whose campaign chairman, Colin Strother, worked in numerous successful campaigns; among them U.S. Representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
Henry Cuellar
Enrique Roberto Cuellar (born September 19, 1955) is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he is considered one of the most conservative representatives in the De ...
of Laredo in Texas's 28th congressional district
Texas's 28th congressional district of the United States House of Representatives covers a strip in deep south Texas starting in the eastern outskirts of San Antonio, and ending at the U.S.–Mexico border. Towns entirely or partially within thi ...
. Menendez faced no Republican opposition in his heavily Democratic district.
In a debate before the American Association of Retired Persons
AARP (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons) is an interest group in the United States focusing on issues affecting those over the age of fifty. The organization said it had more than 38 million members in 2018. The magazin ...
in San Antonio, Menendez noted that Martinez Fischer would have become dean of the Bexar County state House delegation had he remained in the House. Martinez Fischer did assume the Bexar County legislative dean's position on February 1, 2016, with the retirement of colleague Ruth McClendon Ruth Elizabeth Jones McClendon (5 October 1943 – 19 December 2017) was an American politician.
McClendon was born in Houston on 5 October 1943, and graduated from Phillis Wheatley High School before attending Texas Southern University as an unde ...
. "Trey did a great job in the House killing many, many bills... We have differences of opinion, we debate. We're passionate about it, but we're also respectful about it," said Menendez.
Buoyed by the power of incumbency for just a year, Menendez defeated Martinez Fischer, 31,046 votes (59.2 percent) to 21,383 (40.8 percent).
On the last day of the regular legislative session in 2017, Menendez used a filibuster
A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent decision. It is sometimes referred to as "talking a bill to death" or "talking out ...
to kill a bill supported by Republican Donna Campbell
Donna Sue Burrows Campbell (born September 9, 1954) is an American politician and physician who is the 25th District member of the Texas Senate. On July 31, 2012, she became the first person in Texas history to defeat an incumbent Republican sen ...
of New Braunfels
New Braunfels ( ) is a city in Comal County, Texas, Comal and Guadalupe County, Texas, Guadalupe counties in the U.S. state of Texas known for its German Texan heritage. It is the county seat, seat of Comal County. The city covers and had a popula ...
, which would have made it more difficult for municipalities to annex surrounding territory.
In the 2017 special legislative session, Menendez spoke against a bill to increase the penalty from misdemeanor
A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than adm ...
to felony
A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...
when one is convicted of intentionally submitting false information on a mail-in ballot application. Menendez argued that such legislation would lead to "unintended consequences." Kelly Hancock
Kelly Gene Hancock (born December 2, 1963) is an American businessman and Republican State Senator for District 9, which encompasses portions of Tarrant and Dallas counties, including all or part of the following communities in Tarrant County: ...
, a Republican senator from North Richland Hills
North Richland Hills, commonly known as NRH, is a city inside Tarrant County, Texas, United States, and a mid-to-high end suburb of Fort Worth. The population was 69,917 at the 2020 census, making it the third largest city in Tarrant County. In ...
in Tarrant County
Tarrant County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2020, it had a population of 2,110,640. It is Texas' third-most populous county and the 15th-most populous in the United States. Its county seat is Fort Worth. Tarrant County, one of 2 ...
, argued that the legislation is needed because mail-in voting has been linked to illegal voting and election fraud.[Allie Morris and Peggy Fikac, "Legislature sends 4 bills to gov as finish line nears: Tree, annexation changes await voters," '']San Antonio Express-News
The ''San Antonio Express-News'' is a daily newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation and has offices in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. The ''Express-News'' is the third largest newspaper in the state of Texas, with ...
,'' August 11, 2017, pp. 1, A21.
References
External links
Profile
at the Texas Senate
The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per cons ...
Jose Menendez for Texas Senate
Bexar County elected officials guide
Sabor San Antonio
Texas State Directory
Capitol Annex.com
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Menendez, Jose
1969 births
Living people
Democratic Party Texas state senators
Democratic Party members of the Texas House of Representatives
Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Texas
People from San Antonio
People from Hidalgo County, Texas
Central Catholic Marianist High School alumni
Southern Methodist University alumni
San Antonio City Council members
Businesspeople from Texas
21st-century American politicians