Texas Runoff Results Prove The Tide Is Turning

The far right lost the plot and the vote.

Texas showed up. And the far-right took another punch to the mouth. In yesterday’s local runoffs, voters across the state delivered a mixed bag, solid wins for Democrats and progressives, a few tough losses, and one clear pattern. MAGA candidates got their asses handed to them in race after race.

Let’s start with San Antonio.

The Alamo City came through with a wave of wins, the biggest one going to Gina Ortiz Jones, who just made history by becoming the next mayor. She beat Republican Rolando Pablos, a polished conservative backed by the usual GOP machine, with a campaign rooted in inclusion, housing, and real policy.

Gina Ortiz Jones’ win carries significant demographic and symbolic importance. She will be the first woman of color and first openly LGBTQ+ person to serve as San Antonio’s mayor (Jones is a Filipina American and an Air Force veteran who has been open about her identity). Her victory thus represents a milestone for representation in Texas politics. It also continues San Antonio’s trend of favoring pragmatic progressive leadership.

Progressives also secured a strong majority on the San Antonio City Council through the runoffs. Of the four council seats that went to runoffs, progressive candidates won three (Districts 1, 6, and 8), while a conservative won one (District 9).

This means the 11-member council will tilt solidly to the left-of-center on most issues. Mayor-elect Jones will have a friendly council alignment to help implement her agenda.

And it sends a message, loud and clear, to every Republican clinging to power at the state level. You don’t own the cities anymore. Not San Antonio. Not Austin. Not Dallas. Not Houston. The big metros are electing leaders who look like the people they serve, and they’re not waiting for permission.

Mansfield finishes the job. Tarrant turns the tide.

Let’s talk about Mansfield. Yesterday, they elected Todd Simmons to City Council with a 62.64% blowout over far-right darling Melisa Perez. More importantly, Tarrant County Republicans just lost their 12th race to a more progressive candidate.

Simmons’ win marks the final nail in the coffin for the “Take Back Mansfield” crowd, a group of culture war crusaders bankrolled by Patriot Mobile, Tarrant GOP, and every Facebook uncle foaming at the mouth about “wokeness”.

One more time for the people in the back, Tarrant County conservatives are officially 0-for-12 in their far-right crusade this election cycle. Zero. Zip. Nada.

It’s a public shaming.

Voters in Mansfield, and across Tarrant County, rejected the whole damn GOP platform, the book bans, the conspiracies, the attacks on public schools, the fearmongering, and the performative patriotism. These communities looked MAGA in the eye and said, “Nah. Not in our city.”

Tarrant County Democrats showed up. They voted. They organized. And they won.

Irving holds the line. Billionaires lose again.

And then there was Irving.

David Pfaff won his Irving City Council runoff with over 53% of the vote. This was a win not for every single Democrat who’s ever been told their neighbors “don’t vote in May elections.”

They stopped Tim Dunn from turning Irving into his next playground. His money couldn’t beat a clear message, a scrappy team, and a whole lot of shoe leather.

It was a warning shot.

A coalition of communities came together and said, “You’re not going to erase us. Not without a fight.” And they won that fight.

Shout out to North Texas Democrats. Never underestimate them. They showed up, knocked on the doors, made the calls, defied the odds, and reminded us that even in places MAGA thought they owned, we’re still here.

Even Republicans are over it.

Let’s be real. It wasn’t just Democrats doing the Lord’s work this election cycle. Even moderate Republicans decided they’ve had enough of the MAGA mess. And while we’d rather see Democrats in those seats, a moderate Republican who believes in governance and basic reality is a hell of a lot better than another fascist mouthpiece with a Bible in one hand and a book-ban list in the other. We should want a functioning two-party system, not one held hostage by extremists cosplaying as patriots.

Across the state, we saw center-right candidates take down extremists backed by Greg Abbott, far-right church networks, and out-of-state billionaires who treat Texas towns like chessboards.

In McKinney, voters picked Bill Cox over Scott Sanford, a former Republican state rep who had Abbott’s seal of approval and a direct line to the religious right. Cox ran a campaign built on practical solutions and stability. Sanford tried to turn a mayor’s race into a sermon. And he lost. Badly.

Even in deep-red Amarillo, a known bastion of conservative politics, moderate Republican David Prescott barely squeaked out a win against Tom Scherlen, a right-wing ex-cop whose platform was basically “Back the Blue and Ban the Books.” It came down to 51 votes.

Grand Prairie? Same story. John Lopez, a professional and moderate, beat back a religious conservative trying to slide onto the council with nothing but buzzwords and church flyers.

Not every map turned (or leaned) blue.

For every progressive win this weekend, there was a reminder that Texas isn’t flipping overnight. And nowhere is that more evident than in Denton County, a place that keeps flirting with turning purple.

Let’s start with the good news. Suzi Rumohr, a college librarian and pro-public education advocate, absolutely crushed her runoff for Denton City Council District 3. She won with 66% of the vote.

But a few miles over in District 2? Nick Stevens, a Democrat-endorsed candidate, lost to incumbent Brian Beck, a conservative-leaning independent who ran on “keep things the same” vibes and local name recognition. Beck won with 58%.

In Denton ISD, the school board split again. One new voice got elected on a pro-student, pro-education message. But Charles Stafford, a longtime conservative incumbent who’s been part of the district’s old guard, kept his seat with 57%.

These results are reminders. It’s not enough to win San Antonio or flip council seats in Mansfield and Irving. If we want a statewide shift, we must show up in the tough places. In rural counties. In neglected suburbs. In towns where the loudest voice in the room has never been challenged.

We can’t let low turnout be the excuse. We can’t keep writing off whole zip codes. We need to recruit better candidates, invest in year-round organizing, and meet voters where they are, even when it’s uncomfortable, even when it’s uphill.

Texas is changing. But the work isn’t done. And if we want to finish the job, we have to go deeper, go wider, and never let these losses slow us down.

The message was loud and clear. MAGA lost.

Across Texas, voters rejected the book banners, the billionaires, and the bullies. They shut the door on culture war candidates and told the MAGA machine. Not in our city, not in our schools, not anymore.

But let’s not get comfortable.

Because the goal isn’t just to hold the line, it’s to push it.

Yes, we stopped the worst of the worst. But now it’s time to go after the next tier, the polite obstructionists in loafers. The “I’m not like them” Republicans who still vote with the same playbook, just with a quieter tone. They’re not offering progress, they’re offering delay. And delay is just another form of denial.

So here’s the mission going forward:

• Turn those moderate Republican seats blue.

• Turn the blue ones progressive.

• And don’t stop knocking until the entire damn map listens.

We’ve proven we can win in deep-red suburbs. We’ve proven we can organize in purple cities. We’ve proven we can beat billionaires with clipboards and conviction.

Now let’s do it again. And again. And again.

Because if this election taught us anything, it’s that the far-right isn’t unstoppable. They’re beatable. And we, the people, are the ones who beat them.

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