Gina Ortiz Jones made history on Saturday night as she defeated Rolando Pablos to become the next mayor of San Antonio.
The final vote saw Jones with 54.3% of the vote compared to Pablos who had 45.7%.
Jones — a former Undersecretary of the Air Force — ran twice for Congress as a Democrat. Her campaign focused on improving housing affordability.
Jones will succeed Ron Nirenberg, who termed out of office. With her win, Jones becomes the first openly gay mayor in city history and only the third women to hold that office.
“Thank you all for making time to be here,” Jones said at her campaign watch party. You know the results are rolling in, but I couldn’t be more thankful as I am looking across this crowd of people. We’re so proud of the vision that we have put forward, a vision not only of getting stuff done, but of treating people with dignity and with respect and with compassion.”
“I always think about the courage that my mom had to come to this very special country, and the importance for all of us to do our part to make sure that others see just how special our country can continue to be when it’s led by the right folks and when our actions match our values,” she added.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is deeply unpopular in San Antonio, was closely aligned with Pablos.
“I will continue to serve this community with pride,” Pablos told supporters at his campaign watch party. “We want the best for this community and for our families.”
According to the Bexar County Elections Department, a total of 98,412 San Antonio residents voted during the early election in the runoff.
Jones’ first major challenge as mayor will be handling multi-million dollar budget deficits.
“There’s a lot going on on the state level, a lot going on on the federal level, but we here are in San Antonio — deep in the heart of Texas — reminded folks what San Antonio stands for,” Jones told supporters at her election watch party. “We reminded them that our city is about compassion and it’s about leading with everybody in mind.”
