U.S. Senate candidate Sanchez a popular figure in hometown

RIO GRANDE CITY  — Signs greeting visitors who enter this city proudly proclaim it as the home of Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who filed paperwork Wednesday to run for the U.S. Senate after rising to Valley fame as the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

For the people who live in this town of 14,000, Sanchez needs no introduction. But as the former three-star general begins his first campaign for office some five years after he retired from the military’s public spotlight, Sanchez will seek to introduce himself as a formidable candidate who can end the Democratic Party’s embarrassing string of losses in statewide campaigns.

A Rio Grande City High School graduate who remains the city’s favorite son, Sanchez entered the race as a centrist candidate whom Democrats hope can align his military background and Hispanic upbringing to appeal to the state’s fast-growing minority base.

While Sanchez faces a formidable challenge in fundraising for his first political campaign, residents in his impoverished hometown will do what they can to support him, said Rio Grande City Mayor Ruben Villarreal. Now a San Antonio resident, Sanchez still travels to visit family in his hometown, where his reputation for service and hard work precedes him.

 “Even though he has all these accolades that show his commitment to the country, he’s just a small town boy who grew up humbly,” said Villarreal, 48, who recalled watching Sanchez sign autographs for everyone who wanted one after he was the grand marshal for a city parade. “When he comes down here, he becomes one of us very fast, and there are no barriers or walls.

“We all call him general out of respect, when he wants us to call him Ricardo.”

Sanchez was not available for media interviews Wednesday as he preps for a formal announcement at a later date. He released a two-paragraph statement on his Facebook page where he said the state needs “leadership that focuses on results rather than politics.”

“Here in Texas, too many families are struggling to get ahead,” Sanchez wrote. “Jobs are hard to find, our schools simply aren’t good enough and increasing food and gas prices are breaking household budgets.”

Sanchez enters the race as the Democratic Party’s high-profile candidate. The Republican Party’s nomination is anything but settled with a crowded field likely to include Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, former Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, current Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones, former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz.

Democratic operatives recruited Sanchez to run for the seat being vacated by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, hoping he can serve as a high-profile candidate who will draw the party’s Hispanic voters to the polls.  Although Hispanics, who largely vote Democratic, represent 38 percent of the state’s population, only about half that number voted last November.

Sanchez also will encounter an uphill battle in his bid to become the state’s first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate since fellow Valley native Lloyd Bentsen in 1988. Since then, Democrats have recruited Hispanic candidates such as Victor Morales, Tony Sanchez and Linda Chavez Thompson in unsuccessful attempts to stop the party’s losing streak in statewide races, said Tony Knopp, a University of Texas at Brownsville emeritus professor.

“Clearly, Democrats are pinning their hopes that maybe the time has come that a Mexican American can be a formidable candidate who would enable them to win,” Knopp said. “I still don’t know if we’ve reached the point where that’s going to be a viable candidate.”

But Knopp said Sanchez’s distinguished military career will appeal to a patriotic electorate even with its premature end from the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Sanchez presided over coalition forces at the time of the scandal but was exonerated of responsibility in an Army report.

George Solis, the commander of the Valley’s American Legion district, said Sanchez has an appealing personal history of rising from an impoverished upbringing by Mexican parents to become one of the highest-ranking Hispanics in military history. Solis said also he was impressed with Sanchez’s rhetorical ability when he delivered the keynote address last month at a Vietnam veterans event in McAllen.

“He definitely has the qualifications and the leadership skills, there’s no question,” said Solis, who believes Sanchez’s South Texas roots can help him in the state’s strongest Democratic region.

Sanchez also will draw support on a national level, where the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee recruited him as its candidate amid reports it was targeting Hutchison’s vacated seat as one of six tossups available nationally.

Hidalgo County Democratic Party chairwoman Dolly Elizondo-Garcia, who leads her party’s efforts in the state’s bluest county, said the demographic changes alone won’t help Sanchez win. But coupling Sanchez’s likely appeal among Hispanics with the state Legislature’s GOP-backed anti-immigration proposals, Sanchez can increase turnout among Hispanics who represented 20 percent of the total vote last year.

“If we can only raise that percentage by a mere 10 points, we can turn Texas blue,” Elizondo-Garcia said. “It’s not something that’s unattainable, and he can be a part of it.”

Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and legislative issues for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.