Kirk Watson squeaked out a win with just 886 more votes than his opponent, state Rep. Celia Israel, in a runoff election for Austin mayor.
Watson squeaked out a win with just 886 more votes than his opponent, state Rep. Celia Israel, in a runoff election Tuesday. Watson replaces outgoing mayor Steve Adler, who has held the position since 2015.
Tuesday's race was tight. Israel beat out Watson by just 17 votes among Travis County voters, which represent the vast majority of Austin. But in Williamson and Hays counties, where just a fraction of Austinites live, voters went overwhelmingly for Watson, ultimately helping him clinch the race. He won by the smallest margin in an Austin mayoral race since at least the late 1960s, according to election records.Throughout her campaign, Israel seemed to galvanize a younger, more diverse crowd.
Looking at a map of election results, the divide across the city is stark: Israel easily carried neighborhoods east of I-35, where the city is lower-income and more racially diverse. She also carried more central parts of town, such as Hyde Park and Crestview. Ultimately, voters went with the man who’s done the job before. Watson pitched himself as a candidate with the experience and political know-how to move quickly on alleviating the city's growing unaffordability.
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