It’s already a good night for Natasha Harper-Madison and Sabino “Pio” Renteria, as the Austin City Council District 1 and 3 contests looked pretty well settled as soon as early-vote results were released at 7pm. In District 8, Paige Ellis isn’t quite out of the woods, but still has a substantial lead.
In D1, Harper-Madison has just under 72% of the vote in her open-seat contest with Mariana Salazar to replacee retiring Council Member Ora Houston, thus ensuring that Council will still have African-American representation come January. Across 7th Street in D3, incumbent Renteria topped 65% in the reprise of his 2014 race against his sister Susana Almanza. In a statement, Renteria thanked his supporters and volunteers “who have been working tirelessly to make sure that Austin is a place where everyone is welcome, who have been making sure that working families in Austin have a voice at City Hall.”
The @marianasalazar campaign banked on first-time voters returning for the run-off. They definitely didn’t get them out to early vote.
— Nina Hernandez (@neenthirteen) December 12, 2018
Down southwest in D8, which saw more votes cast than in D1 and D3 combined, Ellis begins the night at 56% in her matchup with Frank Ward, seeking to retain the last Republican-held seat on the (officially nonpartisan) dais now held by the retiring Ellen Troxclair. In real numbers, though, that’s a lead of just under 600 votes. Both candidates had the support of their respective party machinery leading up to the ballot:
Thanks today for University Democrats launching a blockwalk from the TCDP SW office for Paige Ellis for District 8. If you want to help email us at info@traviscountydemocrats.org pic.twitter.com/TPs5A5flJb
— Travis County Democratic Party (@TCDP) December 2, 2018
— Travis County GOP (@TravisGOP) December 9, 2018
In the Austin ISD At-Large Place 9 Trustee race, Arati Singh has 57% of the early vote against Carmen Tilton, while Stephanie Gharakhanian has 59% of the Travis County vote in the multi-county race for Place 8 on the Austin Community College Board of Trustees. (Gharakhanian’s opponent Sarah Mills is running ahead in Williamson and Hays counties, but the number of votes cast there is a small fraction of the Travis total.)
We’ll post later on with more updates and reactions from the candidates and their supporters.
This article appears in December 7 • 2018.