ALICE, Texas — Local elections have come and gone in Alice leaving the political landscape in town mostly unchanged after a disappointing turnout. Out of the roughly 26,000 registered voters in Jim Wells County, less than 2200 participated in this year’s local elections.
While low turnout is not unusual for local elections in small towns, it is surprising to see such little participation after two years that brought many changes to the Alice community. With public education and school funding being a hot topic in recent months, many analysts predicted a higher-than-usual turnout, especially for school board races.
Despite the low turnout, the Alice voters who did show up made their voices clear. Every single incumbent politician for the city of Alice and Alice Independent School District retained their seats in this election, although some races like School Board Place 2 and Place 3 were razor-thin. Following the release of the unofficial election results, Ben Salinas Jr. conceded to Adrian Pena, clearing the way for those results to be finalized. The race for Place 3 is less clear—and we may not have an official winner for a few days.
The campaign for Alice ISD School Board Place 3 was a two-person race between current board member Albert Molina and former Alice ISD administrator Willie Ruiz and unofficial results show Molina with a 3-vote margin of victory. Pending the arrival of military ballots, potential mail-in ballot challenges, and a looming recount, it is unclear who will ultimately win this race. The Hub City Gazette is unable to make an official projection for the Place 3 race at this time.
As far as the City of Alice elections go, Mayor Cynthia Carrasco was overwhelmingly re-elected by voters, securing over 62% of the vote. All of the current city council members were also re-elected in Saturday’s race.
Out of all of the positions that were up for election this year, two city candidates and one school board candidate ran unopposed. Alice voters are either content with their current representation and don’t feel the need to change their representatives or they have completely checked out of the political process altogether.
Unofficial 2025 results.