The mayors of Fort Worth and Dallas spent this week in Mexico, pitching North Texas to the country’s government and business leaders. Meanwhile, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump criticized a federal judge on CNN for his Mexican heritage.
That blew up at the same time the North Texans were sitting down with their Mexican counterparts. Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price talked about the trip’s progress while she was there.
…On whether the drop in oil prices influenced this Mexico trip:
“We’re always looking to bring more jobs [to Fort Worth], and that in turn brings more dollars the city - more people come in, more sales tax, more property tax – so we’re always looking to expand our job market.
The slide in oil has hurt us, but our economy is very diverse now, so it hasn’t been devastating.”
…On how Mexican officials feel about Donald Trump’s controversial comments on Mexico:
“They’re not happy about it, obviously, and they’re a little nervous about it. They want some assurance that business is going to continue and we said we’re going to continue to support business here. [The Mexican officials] have a lot of questions about it, but they also understand that big cities can continue to do business.”
…On whether she’ll support Trump in the general election:
“I don’t know yet. He is the Republican nominee and I’m very conservative, but I’ve got significant questions there. We will just see what happens, but I think people have significant questions right now on both sides of the coin.”
…On Hillary Clinton being the first woman to get enough delegates for a party nomination in the U.S.:
“You can’t help but find some pride. I don’t necessarily agree with Hillary’s politics, but it is nice to see a woman at the top of the ticket. All of us in this country should look at not race, not sex, but who’s the best candidate for all our races, not just at the presidential level.”
Betsy Price is the mayor of Fort Worth.
