Notable personal detailsManuel Joseph Barraza is a Republican who ran for U.S. House in Texas’s 16th Congressional District in 2026. He previously served as a state court judge in El Paso, Texas, and later worked in legal roles including paralegal work. In 2010, he was convicted in federal court of wire fraud/deprivation of honest services and making a false statement; the Fifth Circuit affirmed his conviction in 2011.