Jose Vela
2022 - Present
2025
2
Jose Vela (also known as Chito) is a member of the Austin City Council in Texas, representing District 4. He assumed office on February 7, 2022. His current term ends on January 6, 2025.
Vela ran in a special election to the Austin City Council to represent District 4 in Texas. He won in the special general election on January 25, 2022.
Vela completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Jose Vela earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1995. He earned a master's degree in public affairs from the University of Texas at Austin in 1999, and a J.D. from the University of Texas in 2004. Vela's career experience includes working as an attorney for Walker Gates Vela PLLC, an assistant attorney general for the Texas Attorney General's office, and a planning commissioner for the city of Austin.[1][2]
Elections
2022
See also: City elections in Austin, Texas (2022)
General election
Special general election for Austin City Council District 4
The following candidates ran in the special general election for Austin City Council District 4 on January 25, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jose Vela (Nonpartisan)  | 59.2 | 2,141 |
 | Monica Guzman (Nonpartisan) | 13.8 | 497 | |
 | Jade Lovera (Nonpartisan) | 11.1 | 402 | |
 | Amanda Rios (Nonpartisan) | 9.7 | 349 | |
| Melinda Schiera (Nonpartisan) | 4.8 | 175 | |
| Isa Boonto-Zarifis (Nonpartisan) | 0.9 | 33 | |
| Ramesses II Setepenre (Nonpartisan) | 0.5 | 17 | |
| Total votes: 3,614 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2018
General election
General election for Texas House of Representatives District 46
Sheryl Cole defeated Gabriel Nila and Kevin Ludlow in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 46 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Sheryl Cole (D) | 82.2 | 46,893 |
| Gabriel Nila (R) | 14.9 | 8,525 | |
 | Kevin Ludlow (L) | 2.8 | 1,608 | |
| Total votes: 57,026 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary runoff election
Democratic primary runoff for Texas House of Representatives District 46
Sheryl Cole defeated Jose Vela in the Democratic primary runoff for Texas House of Representatives District 46 on May 22, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sheryl Cole | 50.9 | 4,967 |
| Jose Vela | 49.1 | 4,794 | |
| Total votes: 9,761 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 46
The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 46 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jose Vela | 39.6 | 6,209 |
| ✔ | | Sheryl Cole | 38.2 | 6,000 |
 | Dawnna Dukes | 10.2 | 1,595 | |
 | Ana Cortez | 8.1 | 1,275 | |
| Casey McKinney | 2.0 | 312 | |
| Warren Baker | 1.9 | 300 | |
| Total votes: 15,691 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 46
Gabriel Nila advanced from the Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 46 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Gabriel Nila | 100.0 | 1,609 |
| Total votes: 1,609 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jose Vela completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Vela's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My name is Jose "Chito" Vela. I'm an immigration and criminal defense attorney, and I've lived in Austin for over 30 years. I'm running to represent District 4 because I believe Austin should be a safe home for working class people, not a playground for the rich.
In addition to my legal experience, I studied state and local government at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and worked for the City of El Cenizo as city manager in 1998, as well as for the City of Laredo as director of the nonprofit management and volunteer center.
My legal experience, deep ties to the community, and long history of involvement in state and local politics make me the best candidate to represent the people of District 4. I was Greg Casar’s appointee to the Planning Commission, Board President of Workers Defense Project, and President of the Blanton Elementary PTA.
I have been a leader in our community, and I will be a leader on the Austin City Council.
- Austin should be a safe home for the working class, not a playground for the rich. The city council should always center the best interests of the underserved people in our community. This requires investing in public transit, affordable housing, and public safety reform.
- Let Austin be the city it wants to be! Austin is a booming city that still governs like a small town. We are not effectively managing our growth, and it will take new leadership on the council to change that fact. New housing is a good thing. Our government should support and facilitate abundant housing in our city.
- I support sensible and equitable criminal justice reform. Police should focus on violent and dangerous crime. Homelessness, drug addiction, and mental illness are not what police were trained to handle. We should establish parallel services to address those issues, and APD should not be unfairly expected to handle those things when their training is not in those areas.
I am very passionate about housing, public transit, public safety reform, and climate action.
With the median home price over $500k, Austin is facing a housing crisis that’s displacing too many residents. We need to build more diverse housing that working and middle class people can afford, such as duplexes, townhomes, and apartments.
Austin recently approved a light rail investment. Project Connect is an extraordinary opportunity to reduce the number of cars on the road. We should do everything we can to maximize the number of people who will be able to use the new system by building more housing along the rail line.
Public safety in Austin needs reform. Our policing system is not equipped to handle the diverse set of safety challenges we see in our city. We should have police focus on violent and dangerous crime, while alternate systems handle homelessness, addiction, and mental health crises.
Austin also has a large role to play when it comes to the environment. We must shut down the Fayette coal plant, as well as redoubling our efforts to retrofit energy-inefficient buildings in Austin in order to improve our energy consumption practices. We should also explore policies to prevent irresponsible energy consumption like what we saw during the February freeze, where families froze in the dark while empty skyscrapers downtown were lit up on every floor.
Austin welcomed me when I moved here in 1992, and I want to make sure others have the same opportunities that I had. I could not afford to buy the house that I currently live in today, and worry that my own children will be priced out of the city. I was a strong supporter of Project Connect and want to make sure that it is successfully built during my time on council. I’m running for Austin City Council because I know our city needs experienced, progressive leadership that is ready to make real change for our city.
I see my purpose as a listener to those who are not often heard by public officials and an advocate for their needs in the political realm. Immigrants, the homeless, and all other oppressed groups have specific and actionable needs which should be directly addressed by our political system, like affordable housing and criminal justice reform. As a progressive council member, I would fight to put policies in place that directly change the material conditions of those our city has left behind.
A vital part of being a council member is keeping the public informed. The job doesn't stop at meetings and policy writing. I will keep people informed of city hall developments via social media and email and will personally appear at neighborhood forums, meetings and other events to answer questions and talk to the public. I also support the continued use of video/phone public testimony implemented during COVID. This type of public testimony is popular and brings a wider array of voices into city hall discussions.
My experience as Greg Casar's planning commissioner for District 4 has definitely prepared me for this office. As a result of that work, I am familiar with the inner and outer workings of Austin's government, as well as the details of how our city is run from the top down.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2018
Jose Vela did not complete Ballotpedia's 2018 Candidate Connection survey.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate Austin City Council District 4 |
Officeholder Austin City Council District 4 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Chito for State Representative, "Chito for State Representative," accessed January 30, 2018
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on January 9, 2022
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Greg Casar |
Austin City Council, District 4 February 7, 2022–Present |
Succeeded by NA |
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