By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Del Rioan Juan Roberto Martinez has filed to run as a write-in candidate for Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 in the November general election.
Martinez will run against the incumbent justice, Pat Cole, a Republican. Cole is the Republican Party nominee for the position and is unopposed by a Democratic Party candidate.
Martinez, who is currently employed as the sales manager for Harbor Freight, was born in Fort Worth, but came to Del Rio with his family when he was a small child. Martinez grew up here, attending local elementary schools and graduating from Del Rio High School in 1995.
“I took some classes at Southwest Texas Junior College after high school, and I had originally wanted to go into law. I wanted to go to Baylor University,” Martinez said.
Family circumstances, though, led Martinez “to forge my own path.”
“I went into management. I became a district manager with Domino’s Pizza, and I was with them for about six years. I started out here under Connie Peña in 1998, and a year later I became assistant manager, and that’s really where my career in management began,” Martinez said.
A year later, Martinez became a district manager for Domino’s and opened up a number of stores for the company in the Rio Grande Valley.
“I was based out of Eagle Pass, and I ran the district out of there,” he said.
Martinez stayed with Domino’s until 2004, then returned to Del Rio to live.
“I worked a couple different things: Game Crazy, and I also spent a little time at Russell’s True Value and helped my dad out with a couple of his restaurants, including The Deli and Taco Torito. Then I managed a Subway here for about 11½ years, and after that I decided it was time to move on,” Martinez said.
He worked briefly for Chili’s Grill and Bar, but when that gig didn’t work out as planned, Martinez joined the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) in 2019.
“I worked at the bridge, at the border, and I would tax the importation of liquor, alcohol and cigarettes. Then COVID hit, and they were looking to cut hours and people, and I volunteered to go because I didn’t think it would be right for someone who was there 10 or 15 years to be the first ones to be let go,” Martinez said.
He then found Harbor Freight and has now worked there for two years, calling it “a great company to work for.” Martinez worked as the company’s logistics manager for about a year-and-a-half, and then was transferred to be its sales manager here.
Martinez said he felt called to run as a write-in for the Justice of the Peace Pct. 3 position.
“It’s a calling I felt, maybe the hand of God pushing me forward,” Martinez said.
He said he had initially intended to have his name on the primary ballot, but “life got in the way,” and he was not able to file.
“I studied up on the process and learned that you could file as a write-in candidate, so I decided I was going to do that . . . This is what I want to do,” Martinez said.
Martinez said without being a lawyer or a law enforcement officer, this route seemed a way for him to reach a position where he could help make the community safer.
“I got that when I was working with the TABC; I felt I was doing a service for the community, by making sure that products that were illicit were not getting through our borders, and even then, I had the feeling that I could do something more, something bigger, and I think this is one of the ways I can do it,” he said.
Martinez said he realizes he has chosen a difficult path.
“A lot of people that know me know that for some odd reason, I don’t do things the easy way. For some odd reason, I like to push outside my comfort zone. My goal right now is to get 100 votes. I am by no means fooling myself into thinking that I’m going to win in a landslide, and if I get 100 votes, that’s a victory for me, because that means 100 people in this community had confidence in my ability,” Martinez said.
He said the people who’ve met him during his various jobs around Del Rio know he is a hard worker, a reliable man and a good person.
“That’s what I bring to the table. I bring myself, and what I don’t know I will learn, and what I do know, I will put to use,” he said.
Martinez and his wife Hilda have five children ranging in age from 20 to 12.
“Another reason I’m doing this is that I want to leave my children a community that they can raise their kids in, like I chose to raise mine. And with things going the way they are, crime seems to be sneaking in here that we’ve never seen before, and I want to have some hand in hopefully influencing and changing the trajectory of that,” he said.
Martinez said he also has fond memories of a justice of the peace, since one performed the wedding for him and his wife.
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Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
