Dallas, TX Mayor, Fort Worth, TX Mayor, San Antonio, TX Mayor: Three of Texas' five largest cities held mayoral elections on Saturday, though two races were inconclusive and will advance to runoffs on June 8.
In Fort Worth, matters wrapped up with just a single round of voting, as incumbent Betsy Price defeated challenger Deborah Peoples 56-42. This race, like the others, was officially nonpartisan but Price is a Republican and Peoples is chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party. Price won a record fifth two-year term, but her margin was considerably closer than her 41-point win two years earlier.
Next door in Dallas, two Democrats will face off again in the race to succeed term-limited Mayor Mike Rawlings (also a Democrat): state Rep. Eric Johnson, who took 20%, and City Councilman Scott Griggs, who finished closed behind with 18.5%. While Johnson and Griggs are both in their early 40s and have each served in elective office for about a decade, the two are running very different campaigns: Johnson has dominated in fundraising thanks to support from the city's business community while Griggs, as the Dallas Morning News puts it, is "an anti-establishment leader known for his opposition to big projects."
Finally, in San Antonio, Mayor Ron Nirenberg, a left-leaning independent, narrowly missed avoiding a runoff. Instead, he'll have to contend with conservative City Councilman Greg Brockhouse, whom he led 49-46 in the first round. Nirenberg has focused on mass transit and affordable housing while Brockhouse, predictably, rejects those priorities and has instead campaigned on property taxes. Two years ago, Nirenberg himself came from behind to unseat incumbent Ivy Taylor in a runoff.