Former San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg railed against Trump’s “authoritarian regime,” took a shot with a drag queen, and talked about the city’s decision to remove its rainbow crosswalk during a rally at a local gay bar over the weekend as part of his campaign for Bexar County Judge.
“I want to ask if you’ve ever seen a Bexar County Judge candidate come to the [LGBTQ+] strip to campaign? Have you?” Nirenberg asked the crowd. “Well, I’m glad I’m breaking the ice tonight because I want to tell you that the issues that we are facing in this community and across this country – now is not a time to be impartial.”
Nirenberg’s rally, which included a performance by local drag queen Kristi Waters, took place at Let’s Be Honest at the intersection of N. Main Ave and E. Park Ave in the heart of San Antonio’s Pride District.
District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez — the city’s first openly gay councilmember — and former Councilman Cruz Shaw also attended.
During Nirenberg’s remarks, he said he agreed with Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ decision to fold to orders from Gov. Greg Abbott to remove all “political ideologies” from city streets or risk losing funding from the Texas Department of Transportation.
San Antonio’s first openly gay mayor’s decision to remove the crosswalk and replace it with rainbow colored sidewalks caused a divide among the local LGBTQ+ community, in which some said Jones didn’t do enough to fight Abbott. However, Nirenberg said Jones made the right call.
“When it comes to displays of solidarity, when it comes to signs of respect, I agree with Mayor Jones,” Nirenberg said. “We’ve got to keep our eye on the ball. We’ve got to make sure that we focus on the real attacks that are being levied on members of our community, including the LGBTQ+ community.”
Nirenberg also took the opportunity to rail against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies, attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, and seeming disregard for the rule of law.
“What’s happening on our national landscape, where people are allowing an authoritarian regime to in D.C. get away with what they’re getting away with, is because people have lost faith that government actually solves the problems that they’re experiencing,” Nirenberg said.
Nirenberg continued, explaining that the only way to rebuild trust in government is to build an effective local government that serves its residents.
“Those problems are solved at the local level,” Nirenberg said. “So, we’ve got to get wise, we’ve got to get smart on the local issues and the local governing problems because when we solve the issue on the local level, then people will understand that government actually works when we’re working together. But, if we let it continue to fall by the wayside and nobody pays attention to what the county or the city is doing, then they lose faith, and then people like Trump get into office and run roughshod over our values and community.”
The rally concluded with Nirenberg taking a shot with Waters on stage, who said she plans to vote for him in the Bexar County Judge Democratic primary against incumbent Peter Sakai.
“You had my vote back in the day for mayor; you still have my vote,” Waters said. “You’re going to be my mayor forever.”
Nirenberg’s visit to San Antonio’s Pride District comes as Nirenberg is ramping up his campaign against Sakai, with his campaign recently making its first ad buy and out-raising Sakai by $106,000 between July 1 and Dec. 31, according to the most recent campaign finance filings.
The Democratic primary for Bexar County Judge is on March 3.
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