Campaign
The 2020 runoff election was "dominated by Margo’s management of the COVID-19 crisis." [10] According to the Texas Tribune, "Margo ran on his experience guiding the city through three major crises — not just the pandemic, but also the 2019 massacre at a Walmart and the Central American migrant influx prior to that," while Leeser "pitched himself as a better crisis manager who would do more to bring the city together to get the virus under control." [10] [11]
Margo's campaign regularly compared his time in office to Leeser's, claiming among other things that he had resurfaced more streets, created more jobs, and incurred less debt. A Margo campaign ad stated, "Texas Rangers investigated Leeser for allegations he violated state ethics laws. And Leeser raised taxes twice, grew city debt by hundreds of millions, and neglected first responders who helped us during COVID." [12]
A Leeser campaign ad said Margo had ignored his own COVID guidelines, contributed to 32,000 El Pasoans losing their jobs, and claimed that Hispanic people were hospitalized at higher rates than 'normal Caucasians.' [13]
