She served as the undersecretary of the Air Force during the Biden administration.
Gina Ortiz Jones was declared the winner in the runoff election deciding the next mayor of San Antonio, Texas, on June 7.
Voters in San Antonio returned to the polls on June 7, after a general election held on May 3 saw a field of 27 candidates for mayor shrink to two: Gina Ortiz Jones and Rolando Pablos.
With the closing of polls at 7 p.m. CT, early voting numbers were released showing Ortiz Jones leading Pablos 53,645 votes to 48,863 votes, according to Decision Desk HQ.
She was declared the winner a little more than two hours later with 63 percent of the vote counted, at which point she had earned 63,856 votes to Pablos’s 55,155 votes.
This is the first time since 2005 that San Antonio elected a mayor who did not previously serve on the city council, and the first time in 16 years that did not include an incumbent on the ballot. However, both candidates still entered the race with significant experience in politics.
The mayoral race is officially non-partisan but they each came from and were endorsed by their respective party.
Ortiz Jones, an Air Force veteran, came out of the Biden administration, where she served as the Undersecretary of the Air Force, and earned the endorsement of Democratic congressmen Greg Casar and Joaquin Castro. She also earned the endorsement of former mayors Phil Hardberger and Julian Castro, and several councilmembers. She was also endorsed by the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations and the family of Cesar Chavez.
Her campaign focused on working families and young people as well as lowering the cost of living.
The current mayor, Ron Nirenberg, is also a registered Democrat.
Ortiz Jones’s win continues San Antonio’s decades-long streak of Democratic mayors. The home of the Alamo has not had a Republican mayor in 30 years.
Pablos, on the other hand, served as Texas’s Secretary of State from 2016–2017, and carries the endorsement of former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), the Gov. Greg Abbott-affiliated PAC, The Texas Economic Fund, and the San Antonio Police Officers’ Association.
By T.J. Muscaro
