Roy Barrera, Jr.

Roy R. Barrera, Jr. (January 25, 1952), is a high-profile attorney in San Antonio, Texas, who as the Republican nominee nearly unseated Attorney General Jim Mattox, a Democrat, in the 1986 general election.

Barrera is a 1975 graduate of St. Mary's University Law School in San Antonio. He practices in the firm Nicholas and Barrera.

Barrera is the son of Roy Barrera, Sr. (born 1927), and the former Maria del Carmen Zendejas (born 1924) of San Antonio. The senior Barrera served in 1968 as the Texas secretary of state, under appointment of then Governor John B. Connally, Jr.

Before the attorney general's race, Barrera, Jr., served as a state district court judge from 1982 to 1986. Along with Tom Rickhoff, David Peeples, and David Berchelmann, Barrera was the first Republicans in Bexar County elected to state court judgeships since Reconstruction.^[1]

From 1992 to 2004, Barrera was the chairman of the Bexar County Republican Party. He was allied with former U.S. President George W. Bush. He had been a particularly effective fundraiser for the San Antonio GOP.

Mattox only narrowly won a second term as attorney general. Though Barrera is Hispanic, a majority of Hispanics voted for the Anglo Democrat Mattox. Webb County (Laredo), for instance, one of the most Hispanic and Democratic enclaves in the state, supported Mattox.

In 2007, Barrera endorsed Francisco "Quico" Canseco, who sought the Republican nomination to challenge 23rd District Democratic U.S. Representative Ciro D. Rodriguez of San Antonio. Canseco lost the primary in 2008 to Lyle Larson, who was then defeated by the incumbent Rodriguez. In 2010, however, Canseco won the Republican nomination and then narrowly unseated Rodriguez in the general election. He served only one term until his own defeat.

References

External links

• http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=2026
• http://www.nicholasandbarrera.com/Bio/RoyBarrera.asp