Author: Josh Peck (TPR)
San Antonio’s District 4 Councilmember Adriana Rocha Garcia announced she was joining the 2025 mayor’s race on Tuesday. The Southwest Side city councilmember is now the third member of the city council to officially announce their candidacy for mayor, a seat which will be open because Mayor Ron Nirenberg is termed out.
District 4 voters elected Rocha Garcia to her council seat in 2019.
She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Communication Arts from the University of the Incarnate Word before earning her Ph.D. in advertising from the University of Texas at Austin’s Moody College of Communications.
Rocha Garcia said she believes she is the person best suited to handle the challenges facing San Antonio in the next several years, including projected city budget deficits.
“I definitely think that the next few years for San Antonians there’s going to be a period of difficulty where we need to have someone that, one, has the experience, but two, that also is not afraid to bring people together, even if it’s diverse opinions that they may not want to hear,” she said. “And we have to do that for the future of our community.”
Rocha Garcia has worked as a marketing manager for SAMMinistries, as vice president of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, as a special projects manager for the City of San Antonio, as the director of public relations for Southwest Independent School District, and as an assistant professor at Our Lady of the Lake University. She has worked at the university for 16 years.
District 4 Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia at a city council public comment session.
The third-term councilmember was born on the city’s West Side and raised on the Southwest Side. She said her background as a native Spanish speaker who had to learn English as a second language, a daughter of a blue collar worker, someone who grew up in an area of high crime, and an educator makes her uniquely well-positioned to serve as mayor.
“I've worked myself through some very difficult times,” she said. “I would be the first mayor that is a single mom … and then I would also, of course, be the first Latina mayor.”
Rocha Garcia currently serves as the board president of the San Antonio Housing Trust, the chair of the council’s Planning and Community Development Committee, and the chair of the Human Development Committee for the National League of Cities.
She laid out her vision for what kind of mayor she would be for San Antonio. “The vision that I have is to become a transformational mayor for the city,” Rocha Garcia said. “I don't want to be just a transactional mayor. I want to be able to look at programs that are going to benefit long-term.”
She added that if she were elected mayor, she plans to bring residents along with her in transforming San Antonio. “It's great to articulate a vision, but if the people aren't buying into that vision, then it's that leader at the top with their own vision,” Rocha Garcia said. “And so I want to make sure that everybody's at the table.”
Rocha Garcia joins her council colleagues District 8 Councilmember Manny Peláez and District 9 Councilmember John Courage in officially running for mayor. Local tech entrepreneur Beto Altamirano has also been campaigning for mayor in recent months.
District 6 Councilmember Melissa Cabello Havrda is also expected to join the race.
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