Early election results show incumbent Austin Mayor Kirk Watson beat out his four challengers.
With 100 percent percent of precincts counted, Watson won just over 50 percent of the vote, meaning no runoff election will be necessary. He avoided a runoff by just 31 votes, KVUE reported.
His closest runner-up Carmen Llanes Puldido got 20.4 percent. Kathie Tovo took 16.7 percent; Jeffrey Bowen got 8.1, and Doug Greco won 4.7 percent, according to the Travis County Clerk.
Watson took office early last year after serving as mayor more than 20 years ago, between 1997 and 2001. His latest term was just two years, because the city recently changed its mayoral election cycle to coincide with the presidential election. This term will be four years.
Watson pointed to recent changes to the city’s land development code that aim to combat Austin’s entrenched housing affordability issues, in an interview with KVUE.
He plans to continue these efforts in his next term.
Austin City Council delivered a win to YIMBYs in favor of increasing density when it voted in May to allow single-family homes to be built on smaller plots of land. A few months prior, council voted to allow up to three housing units to be built on land zoned single-family.
City Council
Five Austin City Council races were also decided Tuesday.
Incumbents Vanessa Fuentes and Jose “Chito” Vela kept their seats. Fuentes won the District 2 seat; Vela clinched the District 4 position. District 2 covers parts of southeast Austin, while District 4 is located in northeast Austin.
Fuentes and Vela have positioned themselves as champions of housing affordability and supported the recent overhaul of the city’s land code.
Mackenzie Kelly and Alison Alter were the only council members to vote against the land use reform measures.
Alter, who served in District 10, reached her term limit, but Kelly ran again. She lost her re-election bid to Krista Laine for the District 6 seat, which covers northwest Austin. Laine won 51.6 percent of the vote, while Kelly got 48.4 percent.
Mike Siegel appears to have fended off five challengers for District 7 seat, early results show. District 7 includes parts of northeast Austin.
Siegel, who served as assistant city attorney, said he supports land use reform that lowers construction costs and makes way for smaller homes to be built in the city, according to his website.
In the closest council race, Marc Duchen beat out Ashika Ganguly in District 10, which covers northwest Austin.
Duchen’s platform states that “concerns have emerged” related to the land development code overhaul, mainly that it was passed in spite of fears about displacement, property taxes and loss of green space, his website said.
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