NEW BEGINNING

Uvalde Mom Runs for Mayor to ‘Honor’ Slain Daughter

Lexi Rubio was just 10 years old when she was shot dead at Robb Elementary School last year.

Kimberly Mata-Rubio, 34, could be Uvalde’s first female mayor. But that’s not why she’s running—she’s running to honor the life of her daughter, Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio, who was just 10 years old when she was shot dead at Robb Elementary School last year. “I grieve for the woman you would have become and all the difference you would have made in this world. I grieve for the woman I was when you were still here,” Mata-Rubio wrote in a tweet Thursday that launched her campaign. “But, one part of me still exist, I am still your mom. I will honor your life with action. This is only the beginning💛.” Mata-Rubio, a journalist and a mother of five, said she’s running to make the “long overdue” changes that Uvalde has been craving since the 2022 school massacre. “It would be easy to run from the issues that plague our town, but I have decided to remain in Uvalde and be part of the change that is long overdue,” she told Uvalde Leader-News, where she also works as a reporter.