James "Jae" Melvin
My name is James “Jae” Melvin. My friends and others call me Cowboy Jae. I’m a transplant from Georgia who has lived in San Antonio for over 15 years. San Antonio is my home. I enlisted in the United States Navy after high school to serve and protect my country. While in the Navy I was stationed in California aboard the USS Tarawa LHA-1. It was an amphibious warfare ship. We were an uber for the Marines. During my time in the Navy in California I took classes offered by Chapman University. In the closing days of my military tour my brother was struck by a car and left unconscious for a week. That incident motivated me to move back to Georgia.
After moving back to Georgia, I began employment at an aviation plant that manufactured crop dusters, 500 & 600 series helicopters and cargo doors for Fed-ex aircraft. The 1,100 employees were impressed with my work ethic, my ability to garner the attention of the VP which led to quick success and my character. I was pursued by employees who nominated me to run for President of the union and I won unanimously. At age 23, I was elected President of the I.A.M.A.W. (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) Local Lodge 2480. In the first year I increased the membership from 51% to over 80%. My youthful interest in politics became a reality because I lobbied in Washington, DC for workers rights, worked on campaigns and spent time in DC for union functions which allowed me to meet Congressman Sanford Bishop and others. After five years at the aviation plant I moved from Georgia to Texas due to family members relocating to San Antonio.
Your Next Mayor of San Antonio
My political journey started long before relocating to San Antonio. The hunger to advocate for those who don’t have time or those who feel they don’t have a voice began during my days of volunteer work to help candidates run for their respective offices in Georgia. My dear belated grandmother’s giving to others and my political volunteer experience was woven into the fabric of my being. My life hasn’t been perfect and I’ve encountered my fair share of mistakes, trials and tribulations. But, those mistakes, trials and tribulations strengthened me into the leader of courage and man I have become. My mother’s and grandmother’s words continue to ring in my heart and mind today. My mother once told me, “You can’t out give God.” My grandmother would always say, “Baby, I have never seen the righteous forsaken or begging for bread because when you lend to the poor you lend unto the Lord.”
I share those sentiments and memories from my heart so you know that I’ve been a servant leader all my life. Protecting, providing for and caring for you, the people, is my purpose. My purpose drives me to do more and truly realize no matter how low life takes you the only way, is up. I have nothing against the other great candidates for mayor but I’ve been groomed for this moment. I will protect, provide, care for and lead the citizens of San Antonio into the next chapter of our lives. It’s a chapter that I have coined as the “San Antonio Dream”. The San Antonio Dream is a vision of every citizen becoming a pillar of our society, enjoying a life of freedom and safety, having food in every home on every table daily, living in divine health, becoming the best employee or employer you can become because San Antonio has a political structure that encourages each citizen to prosper. I didn’t pursue this mayoral position. It began seeking me out when I was asked to run two years ago.