Newly-elected Claudia Ordaz to be sworn in to council Tuesday morning

It is the first official day on the job for newly-elected City Representative Claudia Ordaz as she attends her first El Paso City Council meeting Tuesday morning.

Claudia Ordaz was elected last month in a special election to represent District 6, which covers part of the Lower Valley and east El Paso.

She will be sworn into office at Tuesday’s meeting.

Ordaz will serve the rest of Eddie Holguin’s term until the next general election.

Holguin stepped down from council to run for county judge.

He sat in on his final meeting last week.

In an interview shortly after her victory, Ordaz said it was a tough election because all the candidates, including herself, were newcomers. She had to work harder to get her name out because in El Paso, name recognition is important said Ordaz.

At the age of 28 years old, she is the youngest member on council.

Ordaz said she is ready to hit the ground running.

“I’ve been talking about transportation services, an eastside entertainment district, just a lot of ideas that I want to bring forth. I have a lot of energy to do it. From my experience, I think I can make a lot of things happen for this community,” said Ordaz.

Representative Ordaz is a native El Pasoan, raised in east El Paso. She graduated from Montwood High School and received her degree from the University of Texas at El Paso.

She worked for Texas Senator Eliot Shapleigh as a communication director, press secretary for Congressman Silvestre Reyes and recently served as the public information officer for El Paso Water Utilities.