Say no

Gil Hernandez

Corpus Christi Mayor · Election Day: November 3, 2026

Wrong for Corpus Christi. Wrong for the Coastal Bend.

Gil Hernandez voted to approve a $2 million taxpayer-funded incentive package for the Homewood Suites hotel developer. That deal became central evidence in the removal trial of Mayor Paulette Guajardo, who was found guilty in August 2026 of perjury, misconduct, and breaching confidential city information. When the City Council put Guajardo on trial over that same deal, it barred Hernandez himself, 4-1, from testifying, because he had a conflict of interest in the original vote. Now he’s asking Coastal Bend voters to promote him to the top job.

Gil Hernandez doesn’t deserve a promotion. Say no on November 3.

Opposes

Office

Corpus Christi City Council

District

Wrong on every issue that matters.

A Vote Timed to Clear the Field

Guajardo filed for re-election on July 20, 2026. Two days later, her removal trial opened. Hernandez pushed for the one penalty that would have ended her political career outright — permanent removal, with a two-year ban on running again. The Council overruled him and suspended her for 30 days instead. Three weeks after that, Hernandez entered the mayor's race himself. (City of Corpus Christi 2026 candidate list; KRISTV, Aug. 9, 2026)

Eight Years In, Asking for a Promotion Instead of Answers

Hernandez has sat on the City Council since winning a December 2018 special election, and voters have sent him back three times since. Now, with City Hall consumed by a mayor's removal trial and open warfare on the dais, his pitch is a bigger title — not accountability for the culture he helped build. (Ballotpedia)

Stalling the One Water Project Corpus Christi Actually Has

Inner Harbor is the only fully permitted seawater desalination plant in Texas — the one project in the city's water portfolio actually cleared to build. In 2024, Hernandez told voters he backed a mix of desalination, brackish groundwater treatment, and wastewater reuse. In June 2026, he voted to table Inner Harbor's $78.6 million design contract rather than advance it. In July, he voted against a gift that would have let the city chase up to $120 million in federal funding to help pay for it. Coastal Bend families living through a real water shortage still don't know which Hernandez to believe. (KRISTV, Oct. 2024; KRISTV, June 3, 2026; Texas Tribune, July 29, 2026)

One of the "Fatal Five" Behind an Unforced $450,000 Payout

This week, Hernandez joined four colleagues — Kaylynn Paxson, Eric Cantu, Carolyn Vaughn, and Sylvia Campos — in voting to settle hotel developer Ajit David's lawsuit for $450,000, on the same day the Texas Supreme Court had the standing opportunity to dismiss the case and end it for nothing. The same bloc has also directed city staff not to honor a separate, legally binding Type B contract with the Homewood Suites developer, exposing taxpayers to still more legal fees. (KRISTV, Aug. 27, 2026)

Campaign Finance: What He Isn't Saying

Voters can't find a single itemized contribution in Hernandez's latest public campaign finance filing. His report covering the mayoral race itself isn't even up yet in a form anyone can read. Before Election Day, Coastal Bend voters deserve to know who's writing the checks — not a blank page. (City of Corpus Christi Campaign Finance Reports)

The record they don't want you to see.

Gil Hernandez wanted Paulette Guajardo gone for good. Two days after she filed for re-election, the City Council put her on trial over three charges tied to a hotel developer incentive deal. Given the chance to vote for a reprimand, Hernandez pushed instead for full removal — the one outcome that would have ended her ability to run for office for two years. His colleagues disagreed and suspended her instead. Three weeks later, he filed to take her job. Voters don’t need to guess at his motive to see the shape of it: he tried to take a rival off the ballot before he ever had to face her on it.

On water — the issue defining this election — Hernandez has never landed on one answer. A multi-pronged strategy in 2024. A tabled design contract and a rejected federal-funding vote in 2026, on the one project in the city’s portfolio that’s actually permitted and ready. Coastal Bend residents living through an actual shortage deserve a mayor who can name his plan and stick to it — not one who keeps stalling the only plan that’s real.

This same instinct to protect insiders over taxpayers showed up again this week. Hernandez voted with four colleagues to settle Ajit David’s lawsuit over the original Homewood Suites incentive for $450,000 — on the very day the Texas Supreme Court could have dismissed the case and ended it without costing the city a dime. That same bloc has now told city staff to ignore a separate, binding Type B contract with the same developer, a move that invites yet another round of legal fees. Less than a fair question to ask: is this fiscal responsibility, or is it politics with the taxpayers’ money?

Before voters hand him the city’s checkbook, Hernandez owes them a real accounting of his own campaign’s finances. His latest filing shows no itemized donors; his mayoral fundraising report isn’t public yet at all. Nobody should have to take it on faith that a mayoral campaign is clean.

Send Hernandez to the mayor’s office and Corpus Christi gets a man who tried to erase his predecessor from the ballot rather than beat her at it, who keeps voting to slow down the only water project the city actually has, who helped hand a developer $450,000 the city didn’t have to pay, and who won’t say who’s funding his campaign. The Coastal Bend deserves better. Voters have a clear alternative on the ballot.

“Those are consequences for the actions, so it's not like she got away with nothing.”

Gil Hernandez, on the City Council’s decision to suspend rather than remove Mayor Paulette Guajardo after finding her guilty on three charges

KRISTV, Aug. 8, 2026

Gil Hernandez tried to take his rival’s name off the ballot rather than beat her on it. He keeps voting to slow down the one water project Corpus Christi actually has ready to build, he just helped hand a developer an unforced $450,000 payout, and he won’t tell voters who’s funding his campaign. The Coastal Bend deserves a mayor who wins elections and moves water forward — not one who does neither. Vote him out on November 3.

Coastal Bend Coalition · Board of Directors