Ivy Taylor kicked her competitors’ butt and became San Antonio’s first African-American mayor, capturing 52 percent of the votes, Huffington Post reports.
What makes Taylor’s win impressive, according to The Texas Tribune, is that she defeated a “nearly lifelong San Antonio Democrat” in the race for the top seat. Taylor, who was initially appointed by the city council as interim mayor following Julian Castro’s departure, defeated Leticia Van de Putte, a former member for the Texas House of Representatives and Texas Senate.
Taylor, on the other hand, was a former Brooklyn city planner who has never run for partisan office, Texas Tribune said.
“I always felt confident. I knew I had given my best and all and had run a campaign focused about uniting San Antonio and us working together to make a better city,” Taylor said, according to ABC KSAT 12.
“It’s a new day in San Antonio,” Taylor’s strategist Josh Robinson said Sunday. The election outcome, he added, conveys the message that the “old way of doing things didn’t work anymore.”
As for Van de Putte, KSAT said, she admits that the loss was heartbreaking, but she has no regrets about the race.
“We’re public servants. I’m so blessed to have been elected for 24 years as an elected public servant, but we’re all in service to each other. I hope that San Antonians join together,” she said.
According to Texas Tribune, the campaign was a dirty one. Van De Putte put a public spotlight on Taylor’s unwillingness to pursue charges following a shooting at her husband’s bail bonds business. Van De Putte was hoping to spook pro-law-and-order voters away from supporting Taylor. “And at one point, a mailer surfaced that cut straight to the chase, calling Van de Putte the most conservative candidate in the race,” the Tribune added.
While Taylor outpaced Van De Putte all night long, the lead was a slim four percent. Taylor received 50,659 votes while Van de Putte reeled in 47,328 votes. If Van de Putte won, she would have been the first Hispanic woman to nab the job in the majority-Hispanic city.
Colin Strother, a Democratic consultant for the first round of the race, blamed poor voter turnout for Van De Putte’s defeat.
“At the end of the day, we needed 3,000 Democrats to get off their asses and go vote, and they didn’t,” said Strother.
