Tenorio attended the University of Hawaiʻi earning a bachelor's degree in geology and returned to Saipan to teach.

He later earned a master's degree in hydrology via the East–West Center and took a job as a hydrologist for the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands government.

[5] In 2005, Tenorio was reelected against Covenant Party nominee Juan Sablan Demapan.

This office was replaced by a nonvoting delegate in the United States Congress in January 2009.

Tenorio was the Republican nominee; however, he lost by 357 votes to Gregorio C. Sablan, an independent.