Gina Ortiz Jones wins the runoff for the mayor of San Antonio

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The next mayor of San Antonio will be Gina Ortiz Jones, a 44 -year -old West Side native who went from John Jay secondary school to the forefront of the US military on a ROTC scholarship.

Jones defeated Rolando Pablos, a close ally of the leaders of the Texas GOP, with 54% of the votes on Saturday evening in a high level and bitter supporter runoff.

Thanks to new mandates longer than the voters approved in November, the winners of the mayor and the city council of this year will be the first to serve four -year mandates before having to request a re -election.

The nearly runoff came after Jones took a 10 percentage lead in the 27 candidates from last month, but resisted nearly a million dollars of pay -offs and its republican allies.

At the Dakota East Side Ice House, a radiant Jones said that she was proud of a campaign that treated people with dignity and respect.

She also said that she was delighted that San Antonio’s policy could offer some positivity in a differently tumultuous news cycle.

“With everything that is happening around us at the federal level and at the level of the state, some of the most non-American things that we have seen for a very, a very long time, it is very encouraging to see where we are at the moment,” she said shortly after the arrival of the first results.

When it has become clear that the results would be held, Jones noticed that “in the heart of Texas”, the voters of San Antonio had reminded the world that it is a city built on “compassion”.

Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pink Pony Club” went up the speakers about 250 supporters celebrating with drinks on a hot evening.

During the party of the Pablos watch, he said that Jones’ overwhelming victory had surprised him. The NorthSide conservative votes on which he counted to carry it did not materialize.

“The fact is that San Antonio continues to be a blue city,” said Pablos to journalists from the old Spanish Drury Inn & Suites ballroom near the Cantera. “This (race) has become very partisan, and today he showed it.”

An unusual race

After an extremely long ticket has discouraged a lot of interest from voters in the first round, the race for the town hall of San Antonio suddenly took a new meaning by boosting a run between Jones, a double Democratic Congress candidate, and Pablos, a close ally of GOP chiefs in Texas.

The two foreigners of the Town Hall explained a multitude of candidates with greater experience of the local government, including four members of the practice in practice, and sent local politicians rushing into their partisan camps for a non -partisan race.

He also aroused the major interest of state and national political interests, republican and democrats each targeting a position that could be a springboard for a future politician of one or the other party.

Between the candidates and their support outside groups, runoff had already addressed around $ 1.7 million in expense to May 28 – the last date covered by campaign financing reports before the elections.

The May25 mayor runoff campaigns and their external support groups spent large in difficulty, text messages and television advertisements.

During a recent Jones gathering on the west side, the president of New Texas Democratic Party, Kendall Scudder, said that the will of the Republicans to flow incredible money in symbolic victories was sufficient to encourage the Democratic State party to spend money for the Republicans of Jones towards the end of the runoff – in a city where the Democrats are largely in abundance of the Republicans.

“These breeds are supposed to be non -partisan, they are the ones who do not support them,” said Scudder about the Republicans of Texas. “They are the ones who arrive and flood money in these races … and we have to hold on the front line.”

The third time is a charm

For Jones, who was recently under-secretary of the Air Force in the Biden administration, this is the third high-level race that democratic interests expected what it wins.

She got closer in 2018 in the 23rd District of the Texas Congress, losing around 1,000 votes to the Republican Will Hurd, then lost by a greater margin in the same district two years later for the American representative. Tony GonzalesR-San Antonio.

The two were races of several million dollars, high level in the battle for the American house, and the losses stung so much that Jones chose to look at the results of last month elections in private – even if she had conducted each public survey that led there.

During his surveillance party on Saturday evening, Jones was joined by the iconic local activist Rosie Castro and the former mayor Julián Castro, as well as representatives of a range of external groups who helped her in the race: the Texas organization project, the veterans votes and the unions, to nam only a few.

Stressing the growing progressive influence at the town hall, members of the Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), Phyllis Viagra (D3), Edward Mungia (D4) and Teri Castillo (D5) also participated.

Another new progressive, Ric Galvan, 24, celebrated a narrow victory for District 6 on the west side of the city.

The Democratic National Committee, Texas Democratic Party and Democratic Mayors Association has all published statements congratulating Jones.

“With his victory in a heavily Latin city, the mayor elected Jones will continue the legacy of the mayor Nirenberg and will advance San Antonio,” said the president of the National Democratic Committee Ken Martin in a statement. “From school councils to municipal councils to mayor offices through the State, Texas voters make their loud and clear voices heard: they want strong democratic leaders who will fight for them.”

Bucking Shifts to the right

By entering the night, the Conservatives controlled only one seat on the Municipal Council of San Antonio, while the elected representatives on the whole approached the extinction in the county of Bexar.

Nevertheless, the Republicans saw a great opportunity during the non -partisan city elections.

The mayors of the main urban centers in Texas have become less progressive as long -standing holders called, and during the November elections, President Donald Trump overthrew two historically blue counties in South Texas – fueling a greater intrigue on Hispanic voters becoming more republican.

Pablos and his allies sought to launch Jones as a progressive fanatic, a PAC supporting him to nickname him “the AOC of Texas” in recent days and the association of San Antonio police officers threatening that she would end up in the police (which Jones said that she did not plan to do).

Pablos deliberately dropped the “Ortiz” of his name almost every time he was in front of a microphone, and broadcast advertisements accusing Jones, who is Philippine, of pretending to be Hispanic.

It was an unexpected approach to a well -known commercial lawyer with good relations on both sides of the aisle, and a deviation from the “unity candidate” that he took more than a year ago when he describes the plans of his first political enterprise in San Antonio.

Pabos said on Saturday that he was proud of the race he had run, even when she became ugly. The crowd of his watch party even hué Jones when his face came on the TV screen after the first results were announced.

“I think my team did an excellent job. I think we have led an excellent campaign, “said Pablos, who promised to continue to seek means to serve the community. “What we have done is that we have presented everything so that everyone can watch and consider.”

A vision built from personal experience

Jones, whose family has grown up by relying on housing vouchers and other forms of government support, has designed a protection campaign for the most vulnerable residents of San Antonio – in particular during a period of political uncertainty at the levels of the state and the federal government.

It was one of the most vocal criticisms of the city’s plans for a downtown development project of around $ 4 billion for the San Antonio Spurs known as Project Marvel at the start of the race, claiming that it wanted to concentrate the city’s resources on pre-K extended programs, the development of the workforce and affordable accommodation.

It was a major contrast with Pablos, a former president of the Hispanic Chamber of San Antonio, who promised to focus on large companies in San Antonio, and even led certain left -wing members of the business world to see it with uncertainty.

A surprising number of progressive elected officials remained entirely entirely of runoff or supported pablos.

Jones did not seem discouraged by this dynamic, often saying on the campaign track that his own approach was rooted in a personal experience with leaders who listen to only a few privileged.

She joined the army under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell more than two decades ago at the University of Boston and will now be the first mayor of the City of the LGBTQ community.

“This experience (from Don’t Ask Don’t Tell) showed me the importance of when you are in leadership, always having the humility to ask:” Who am I not heard? ” Jones said in a recent debate on the San Antonio report.

Jones underlined San Antonio’s continuing struggle with poverty – despite major investments for many years to try to change this reputation.

“We had, I think, too many leaders listening to an too small part of our community.”

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