Donald "Dee" Margo (born February 4, 1952) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 51st mayor of

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the ...

from 2017 to 2021.

Early life and education

Margo graduated from Huntsville High School in

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in ...

. He accepted a football scholarship to

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

and graduated in 1974 with a degree in history and economics.

Career

Margo moved to El Paso in 1977 from

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

to join his father-in-law's insurance business, John D. Williams Company. In February 1981, six days after Margo’s 29th birthday, his father-in-law suffered a fatal heart attack. Margo purchased JDW from the estate and expanded the company from 6 employees to 70. In 2005, Margo was named chairman of the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce and in 2012 sold his company to HUB International. From 2011 to 2013, Margo served in the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abo ...

. He represented the 78th district, which covers parts of El Paso County, after defeating Texas state representative Joe Moody. Moody defeated Margo in a rematch in 2012. On June 10, 2017, he was elected mayor of El Paso after winning the runoff part of the city's mayoral election of 2017 against another Republican businessman, David Saucedo. Margo was defeated for re-election running against former mayor Oscar Leeser in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

Personal life

Margo has been a resident of El Paso for over 40 years. He and his wife Adair, an El Paso native, married on August 21, 1976 and moved to El Paso in March 1977, where they raised their sons. Their granddaughters are fifth-generation El Pasoans.

Electoral history

References

External links