State Rep. Pena to seek re-election in McAllen House seat

Ending speculation about his political future, state Rep. Aaron Peña announced today he will seek re-election to a sixth term in the state House.

Peña, R-Edinburg, announced via Twitter that he intends to run for re-election in his newly-configured House district based in McAllen. When the veteran legislator announced his switch to the Republican Party in December, some surmised he was positioning himself to run for Congress, but Peña ruled out such speculation today, saying he wants to continue advocating for the Rio Grande Valley in the state House.

“We’ve had great success in completing many of the goals that we set out to achieve when I first ran for office yet there are many new challenges that lie ahead,” Peña wrote. “The experience, relationships and knowledge that we gained over the years give us the increased opportunity to meet those challenges head on and help provide a bright and hopeful future for our community.”

Peña’s announcement was posted early this morning to his blog, www.acapitolblog.com. It ends considerable speculation about his immediate future, some spurred by Peña himself.

In a spirited redistricting fight that pitted Peña against the county’s three Democratic legislators, a GOP-supermajority approved a map that essentially swaps his Democratic district out for the Valley’s most conservative seat, currently held by state Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen. The map seemed to be drawn to give Peña a clearer path toward becoming the first Republican elected to office in Hidalgo County, but Peña fueled some speculation by emphasizing that he hadn’t yet said if he would run for the seat.

All three of the county’s other legislators opposed Peña’s reconfigured district because of its impact on their own. Gonzales was left representing less than 2 percent of her current district while state Reps. Armando “Mando” Martinez, D-Weslaco, and Sergio Muñoz Jr., D-Palmview, also saw significant changes.

The map also draws state Rep. Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City - Peña’s closest friend in the Valley’s delegation – into northern Hidalgo County, protecting him from potential challengers in Webb County.

After becoming a vocal critic of the Democratic Party’s practices, Peña announced in December that he was ending his long-time affiliation with the party to become a Republican. Peña said he wanted to give voters in Hidalgo County, a historic stronghold for the Democratic Party, a choice in a two-party system, but he faced an uphill battle in a district that favored Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama with 76 percent of the vote in 2008.

 Peña has said his new district is a tossup district that swings to either party depending on the election cycle.