Changes

{{Infobox  officeholder

{{Infobox  officeholder

| name=Elizabeth Garcia "Betty" Flores​

| name=Elizabeth Garcia "Betty" Flores​

|nationality=[[Mexico|Mexican|United States|American]]​

|nationality=[[Mexico|Mexican]]-[[United States|American]]​

| office=[[Mayor]] of [[Laredo]], [[Texas]], [[United States|USA]]​

| office=[[Mayor]] of [[Laredo]], [[Texas]], [[United States|USA]]​

| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]] in officially nonpartisan office ​

| party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]] in officially nonpartisan office ​

Flores did not graduate with her class of Martin High School because she left the school after being told she could not longer hold any position in school clubs after her marriage. She returned and finished her pending two credits at J. W. Nixon High School. She worked for the Union National Bank and then the [Laredo National Bank, later Compass Bank) having begun as a secretary. She eventually became the first woman senior vice president of the bank and was affiliated with the institution for twenty-eight years. "I've worked with men all my life. I was always the only woman in the room. I never focused on that when I was campaigning," she said in a farewell interview with Julie Daffern of her hometown newspaper, ''The Laredo Morning Times.''

Flores did not graduate with her class of Martin High School because she left the school after being told she could not longer hold any position in school clubs after her marriage. She returned and finished her pending two credits at J. W. Nixon High School. She worked for the Union National Bank and then the [Laredo National Bank, later Compass Bank) having begun as a secretary. She eventually became the first woman senior vice president of the bank and was affiliated with the institution for twenty-eight years. "I've worked with men all my life. I was always the only woman in the room. I never focused on that when I was campaigning," she said in a farewell interview with Julie Daffern of her hometown newspaper, ''The Laredo Morning Times.''

==Running for mayor==

==Running for mayor==

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Flores announced that she would run for mayor in the fall of 1997, after the incumbent, Saul N. Ramirez, Jr., resigned to join the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] administration. Ramirez later became the deputy in [[Washington, D.C.]], to  [[Housing and Urban Development]] Secretary [[Andrew Cuomo]], since the [[governor]] of [[New York]]. Flores won the special election runoff in the winter of 1998. Then she ran for a full term in May 1998. She defeated an outgoing councilman, Alfonso I. "Poncho" Casso, who reappeared in 2012 to seek a position on the Webb County Commission and a previous city attorney, Fausto Sosa. In 2002, she was easily reelected to a second full term when she defeated a former city councilman, Felipe Cardenas, who had been recalled from office several years earlier, as permitted under the Laredo municipal charter, though there is no recall in Texas for state positions.​

Flores announced that she would run for mayor in the fall of 1997, after the incumbent, Saul N. Ramirez, Jr., resigned to join the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] administration. Ramirez later became the deputy in [[Washington, D.C.]], to  [[Housing and Urban Development]] Secretary [[Andrew Cuomo]], since the [[governor]] of [[New York]]. Flores won the special election runoff in the winter of 1998. Then she ran for a full term in May 1998. She defeated an outgoing councilman, Alfonso I. "Poncho" Casso, who reappeared in 2012 to seek a position on the Webb County Commission and a previous city attorney, Fausto Sosa. In 2002, she was easily reelected to a second full term when she defeated a former city councilman, Felipe Cardenas, who had been recalled from office several years earlier, as permitted under the Laredo municipal charter, though there is no recall in Texas for state positions.​