More Arlington residents than usual voted early this year, with some races having the most ballots cast since 2017, according to unofficial results.
Seven races were on the ballot, with four appearing across the whole city and three only in certain districts.
The city election saw Mayor Jim Ross and District 3 council member Nikkie Hunter securing their third and final terms, while newcomers Tom Ware and Brittney Garcia-Dumas won seats for Districts 4 and 5, respectively.
Garcia-Dumas unseated Rebecca Boxall, while Ware’s win fills a seat being vacated by Andrew Piel, who has reached his term limit.
None of the three candidates in District 8 secured more than 50% of the vote, triggering a runoff between UT Arlington professor Jason Shelton and Arlington ISD trustee Melody Fowler. The seat is being vacated by Barbara Odom-Wesley, who is term limited.
Arlington ISD voters approved two of the three propositions for school upgrades and reelected incumbent trustees Leanne Haynes and Brooklyn Richardson.
Tarrant County election data showed 223,991 residents were registered to vote as of April 2, the deadline to register for the May election.
The ballot item that gathered the most votes was the city’s street maintenance tax. That item netted a total of 26,667 votes, which is roughly 12% of voters registered for the election.
The last municipal election to have an item across all Arlington precincts was 2023, when Amy Cearnal challenged Ross for mayor.
Of the past five mayoral elections, this year’s race got the most early votes.
The only mayoral election to have more Election Day votes was in 2021 when the ballot featured a special election to fill a U.S. House seat and the mayoral seat appeared downballot.
The mayoral election later went to a runoff between Ross and former council member Michael Glaspie.
Ross said the rhetoric used in this year’s race by opponent Steve Cavender’s campaign, which he described as nasty and divisive, might be one reason for the higher turnout.
“I’d say look at the numbers, I think it played a substantial role in what’s going on,” Ross said on the night of the election.
In the District 5 race, Garcia-Dumas, founder and CEO of BGD Digital Marketing, defeated Boxall, an architect who has served two terms on the council. In 2023, Boxall ran unopposed.
This year saw the most ballots cast in a District 5 race than in the past five municipal elections.
In a Facebook post the morning after the election, Garcia-Dumas touted her team’s door-knocking and poll-greeting campaign.
“Last night, with an 11% lead, we, the people of District 5 won our seat at City Hall,” Garcia-Dumas wrote. “I am honored to be the elected conduit through which District 5 has a voice.”
Meanwhile, Fowler and Shelton are heading to a runoff election after neither candidate netted more than 50% of the vote.
The at-large district race included associate real estate broker Corey Harris. Harris received 14.8% of the votes, while Fowler got 46.9% and Shelton got 38.7%.
This year’s race also brought more early voting ballots than the past five District 8 races.
Housing and transportation were the top issues discussed by District 8 candidates during an April 16 forum hosted by the Arlington Report and KERA News.
Fowler said the availability of affordable housing is a concern among city residents. She said apartments are too expensive and not everybody wants to live in one.
“I think we need to find housing that’s affordable for the middle-income people, but, of course, we need the higher income housing as well for the businesses to come in and bring their executives,” Fowler said. “I think we’re missing that middle ground where people like city workers and teachers can live here.”
One solution she suggested was renovating or redeveloping single-family homes.
Shelton said he agreed that housing needs to be addressed, but no single issue stands above others citywide because so many challenges are interconnected.
“Housing is also connected to transportation, housing is also connected to our growing problem of homelessness in our city,” Shelton said. “There are a number of issues that sort of cascade across these issues.”
He said the city needs more diversified housing options so its offerings include single-family homes, townhomes, condos and apartments across all economic brackets.
The runoff election is June 13.
Got a tip? Email James Hartley at jhartley@kera.org or follow James on X @ByJamesHartley.
Chris Moss is a reporter for the Arlington Report. Contact him at chris.moss@arlingtonreport.org.
