Rick Galindo

Ricardo Galindo, III, known as Rick Galindo (born April 27, 1981) is a risk management consultant in his native San Antonio, Texas, and Republican one-term member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 117 in Bexar County. He narrowly unseated the one-term incumbent Democrat Philip Cortez in the November 4, 2014 general election.

Cortez, however, returned to reclaim the seat in the general election held on November 8, 2016. Cortez polled 29,319 votes (51.3 percent) to Galindo's 27,783 (48.6 percent).^[1]

Background

Reared on the Southside of San Antonio, Galindo is a son of Oscar Hernandez Galindo, a former civilian employee of the since-closed Kelly Air Force Base, and his wife, Valeria Galindo. He graduated from a parochial school, Central Catholic High School in downtown San Antonio. He subsequently received a degree in Finance and Risk Management from St. Mary's University in San Antonio. Having begun his career with the H. B. Zachry Company, Galindo is currently a risk manager for Spectrum Association Management. He and his wife, the former Valeria Deanna Tey (born 1979), a teacher with the Northside Independent School District, have two daughters.^[2]

Political life

On March 4, 2014, Galindo won the Republican nomination for state representative over a former lawmaker, John Garza, 2,372 votes (64.6 percent) to 1,300 (35.4 percent).^[3] Galindo then unseated Cortez, 12,835 votes (52.7 percent) to 11,521 (47.3 percent).^[4]

Galindo describes himself as a "true conservative" who "will lead the fight for real conservative solutions that will grow our economy and create new jobs, improve our schools, protect the unborn and the infirm, preserve and defend our Second Amendment liberties and ensure our state government spends less and taxes less"^[5]

Galindo carried the backing of the group Hispanic Republicans of Texas, which seeks to elect Hispanics to office on the Republican ticket.^[6]

Galindo was narrowly defeated in his bid for a second term in 2016 by the man that he had unseated in 2014, Phillip Cortez. Galindo trailed with 27,783 votes (48.6 percent) to Cortez's 29,319 (51.3 percent). The 78 write-in votes for Carlos Antonio Raymond did not impact the outcome of the race.^[7] In the campaign, Galindo had questioned Cortez's $7,500 monthly retainer in 2014 from the developer, L. H. Devco. Cortez pledged if retained by the firm to "introduce and educate various decision-making individuals and elected officials to L. H. Delco and its goals and objectives."^[8] Galindo called Coretez's dealings "a flagrant abuse of the public trust."^[8] Randall Buck Wood, an Austin elections lawyer, explained that a lawmaker "can't receive money for legislative efforts. You just can't do it. You can't be a lobbyist and a state rep at the same time. ... You can't be paid while you're in the legislature to advance the interests of a third party."^[8]

References