In Texas, a county judge and Republican congressional candidate pushed for the county to accept a bid from a company, whose CEO is a political donor, for a contract far larger than the county had originally planned.
In July 2025, the Webb County Commissioners Court, which serves as the governing body of the county in Texas, approved the start of a process to purchase GPS trackers and dual-facing cameras for use with the Webb County Sheriff’s Office patrol units. As a first step in this process, the Commissioners Court authorized the county purchasing agent to solicit proposals from companies for a 13-month service agreement for 50 GPS trackers, according to county meeting minutes.
In October, the Commissioners Court received 16 of these proposals back from the purchasing agent office, alongside ratings for the contracts in categories like “dash camera capabilities,” “support training and warranty,” “vendor experience and references,” and the financial cost, accounting for both the upfront cost and the recurring fees.
Of the 16 companies that put in their bid, one stands out — but not because it ranked the highest in any of these categories. In fact, the standout proposal from Monarch Tracking didn’t rank the best in any category and was only ranked fourth overall. The Monarch Tracking proposal stood apart from the others because of the strong support it enjoyed from Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina. In Texas, the county judge presides over and votes in the county’s commissioner court, which handles county government administration.
During an October 27, 2025 hearing, when the proposals were being considered, Tijerina immediately launched into a motion to award Monarch Tracking, even asking the other four members of the Commissioners Court to hold their motions so he could do so, as shown on a video of the proceedings maintained by Webb County.
“I’m gonna go ahead and move a motion. I’ve already gone into this extensively. The only one that is from Loredo is Monarch Trucking [sic],” Tijerina said before correcting himself. “They’re the only ones here locally. We’re gonna do this in-house. I think there needs to be somewhere we can just say come in and out. They’re absolutely incredible.”
Tijerina later made it clear that he intended to put trackers in every vehicle the county owned.
“Anything that’s under the insurance of the county, this will be for every vehicle, there’s not going to be any exceptions,” Tijerina said. “This is going to cover our bases all the way through.”
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Commissioner John Galo interjected, citing concerns he had about the recurring fees Monarch Tracking could charge, which could cost the county tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, in his estimate. Galo also said that the fact these recurring fees were not accounted for in the purchasing agent’s ranking “makes me suspicious.”
Tijerina responded that if the motion carried, it would only start the negotiation process, before noting how unusual it was to re-rank proposals for a contract like this.
“For the public, in my eleven years that I’ve been county judge, this is perhaps my third time that I’ve ever re-ranked the proposals,” Tijerina said. “Well, it’s not only the individual, it’s what he’s done, it’s the company. It’s what he’s done, he’s putting commercials out. I mean, it’s really, really impressive.”
The impressive individual that Tijerina was referring to appears to be Monarch Tracking CEO Neal Hill, who has donated $3,364 to Tijerina’s congressional campaign across two donations, according to FEC filings. The first donation occurred in July of 2025, around the time the county began soliciting proposals for a new tracking system, and the second came in October 2025, less than a week before the meeting where Tijerina expressed his strong support for contracting with Hill’s company. As of November 17, 2025, Monarch Tracking was awarded the contract with Webb County, according to government records.
Tijerina officially announced his run for Congress in December of 2025, with the Texas Tribune reporting that he was a top pick for the 28th District in the eyes of the national GOP. Tijerina is running against the incumbent in the seat, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, but was a Democrat himself up until December of 2024, switching parties in the wake of Trump’s 2024 win.
“Over the years, I’ve watched the Democratic Party shift further and further to the left and leaving the values that I hold dear to my heart,” Tijerina told Fox & Friends in December 2024. “I’ve always been a conservative, and the radicalization of the national Democrats pushed me away a long time ago.”
Tijerina’s opponent, Cuellar, has had his own ethical issues over the years. In 2024, Cuellar was indicted for allegedly accepting $600,000 in bribes from a government-owned Azerbaijani oil and gas company as well as a bank headquartered in Mexico City. Cuellar’s case, however, never went to trial. Following delays in the late summer of 2025, the case was rescheduled for 2026. President Donald Trump, however, pardoned Cuellar in December 2025, saying the congressman “bravely spoke out against open borders.”
Cuellar regularly ranks as among the most conservative Democrats in Congress, alongside representatives like Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Jared Golden, D-Maine. In 2024, Cuellar won re-election by about 5 points in the 28th District. The district, however, was redrawn during Texas’s Republican driven mid-decade redistricting scheme. Under the 2024 lines, Republicans enjoyed a roughly seven-point advantage in the district. Under the new lines, Republicans have about a 10-point advantage in the district.
This part of South Texas has also been a hotly contested political territory in recent elections, with former Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Texas, posting a historic win in the nearby 34th District in 2022, and with Trump himself making gains in the area in 2024. It’s not clear, however, whether the area will swing back towards Democrats in 2026, or whether Republicans will solidify the gains they’ve made there.
Neither Tijerina’s campaign nor Monarch Tracking immediately responded to Salon’s request for comment.
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