Incumbent Mayor Jim Ross has been reelected to a third and final term with 50.04% of the vote, narrowly avoiding a runoff election, according to unofficial results.
Steve Cavender trailed with 39.4% of the vote, roughly 2,800 fewer votes than Ross.
Cavender and his campaign team did not respond to multiple requests for a comment Saturday night.
As soon as election data from Tarrant County showed 100% of votes counted, Ross took the stage to cheers and applause that shook the dishes on tables at J. Gilligan’s Bar and Grill, where he was hosting a watch party to which he invited every other candidate running for any office in Arlington.
His message after inviting other winners to the stage was of grace in victory.
“Going forward, as much as some of us really want to get in somebody’s face and say, ‘We told you we won’t put up with this [expletive],’ we’re not gonna do it,” Ross told his supporters. “We’re gonna move forward, we’re gonna be better than the other side was.”
Shaun Mallory and Hunter Crow, who are also running for the office, saw 4.9% and 5.5% ballots cast in their favor, respectively.
The contest for Arlington mayor has been contentious, with many voters describing it as divisive and messy.
Ross focused his campaigning, and especially on social media, on sharing his achievements, the reasons he’s proud of his city and the endorsements he’s received.
Cavender’s strategy relied heavily on criticizing Ross, with special attention on his personal taxes, travel expenses and a video from a panel discussion on housing policy. He’s also placed the blame for increased property taxes, approved by council in a 7-2 vote last year, squarely on Ross’ shoulders.
Ross, a retired Marine, former police officer and practicing trial attorney, launched his campaign for a final term with a message that Arlington is going in a good direction and he wants to keep it that way.
Much of his messaging included references to maintaining momentum and continuing the progress, development and planning taking place in the city.
Cavender, on the other hand, claimed Ross is mismanaging the city’s finances and not looking out for the city’s residents and businesses.
Outside of his campaign’s attacks on Ross, Cavender emphasized fiscal responsibility, fewer multifamily apartments near neighborhoods and public safety as his core principles.
He also continuously touted his endorsements from former mayors Jeff Williams and Richard Greene, as well as former council members.
A contentious race
Amanda Jordan, a communication professor at UT Arlington with expertise in social media and political misinformation, said that misleading messaging has become more prominent in local elections over recent years, and should be approached with caution.
Jordan said voters should be wary of social media campaign messaging that focuses on attacks against an opponent.
Many of those ads and posts lack vital context or have intentional omissions when addressing things like an opponent’s voting record, personal background or qualifications, she said.
“We’re also seeing a whole lot of not talking about actual issues, but just actual attacking instead of anything that might be substantially helpful to voters,” Jordan said.
She said voters need to be especially careful when informing themselves only from those types of messaging.
Posts on Cavender’s campaign Facebook page have included references to a video in which they claimed Ross insulted Cavender’s wife, without sharing any video or links. When asked, Cavender campaign manager Brian Mayes said they would not be sharing the video out of respect for Ann Cavender, Steve Cavender’s wife.
Cavender’s campaign did post a 10-second clip of a video of Ross at a panel discussion on housing policy in which the incumbent mayor is asked to describe the situation in “booming Arlington.”
“It’s bats**t crazy,” Ross deadpans, garnering laughs from the crowd.
In the full 41-minute video of the discussion at the 2025 J. Ronald Terwilliger Center Summit on Housing Supply Solutions, Ross went on to explain the city’s history and current housing situation, contextualizing his opening jest.
The video posted by Cavender’s campaign frames the statement as Ross’ opinion on the city, saying that “Steve Cavender loves Arlington while Jim Ross mocks it.”
Throughout most of the campaign, Ross appeared to ignore the attempts to impeach his character and attack his actions.
That changed around 11 p.m. Election Day.
After inviting other candidates who won their races to join him on stage, he addressed the campaign.
“This has been a very, very, very nasty, difficult, divisive race,” Ross told around 125 people who gathered in the bar to watch the results roll in. “Y’all spoke really loud by saying, ‘We don’t put up with this crap in Arlington,’ and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate y’all and love y’all for doing that.”
In an interview following his victory speech, he said the way Arlington voters responded to the rhetoric from Cavender’s campaign may have been the deciding factor.
“They were their own worst enemies by coming out with such divisive rhetoric,” Ross said. “People want to know, what are you going to do? What do you bring to the table? What is special about you? People don’t want to just hear, the other guy’s really, really, really bad. And that’s what they heard.”
He said the city has “seen rhetoric that doesn’t reflect who we are as a community,” noting that he’s confident voters didn’t respond positively to that rhetoric.
Moving forward, he said the goal is to reunite as a community.
“I think we could take a big lesson from Martin Luther King Jr. — Dr. King would tell us that the only thing strong enough to overcome hate is love,” Ross said.
Posts about Cavender are few and far between in Ross’ social media, with most posts focused on his own achievements in office, the city’s qualities of which he’s fond and the endorsements he’s received.
When it came to policy plans, Cavender didn’t provide many specifics in his campaign messaging, including related to the budget. The mayoral hopeful said on multiple occasions that he would have ordered city staff to make cuts to the city’s 2026 budget to ensure it was balanced.
When asked what specific cuts he would make, Cavender on two different occasions said he hadn’t looked over the budget closely enough to speak to specifics.
Ross defended the budget. The city had to make around $25 million in cuts, in large part due to property valuation changes at the Tarrant Appraisal District, and Ross said the city made every cut it could without substantially impacting essential city services.
He also said the city plans to adjust its budget again and is looking at lowering taxes once more.
Over $200,000 spent in race to mayor
The two campaigns raised funds and spent very differently.
According to campaign finance reports, Cavender dramatically outspent Ross, with some of his largest expenses being to hire Mayes’ firm, Mayes Media Group.
Cavender’s campaign finance reports show he paid more than $164,500 to Mayes Media Group during his bid for office. Mayes is listed in the campaign finance reports as contributing $50 to Cavender’s campaign funds.
In total, Cavender’s campaign spent just shy of $200,000, meaning more than half of his expenses were paid to Mayes Media Group.
Ross ran a much leaner campaign, with his finance reports showing around $21,000 spent on political expenses.
The campaign finance reports cover all contributions and expenses from Jan. 1 to April 22, so more spending may have occurred since that date.
While Cavender outspent Ross, the incumbent mayor raised more funds than his challenger, according to the reports.
Ross’ campaign listed contributions of $138,155 compared to Cavender’s $98,341.
Both campaigns took out loans — since January, Cavender borrowed $135,000 to Ross’ $100,000.
Ross’ final term
Ross, who will not be eligible to run for reelection in Arlington under the city’s term limits, said he is ready for three more years at the city’s helm but will not seek any other office after he’s done.
Looking ahead to the next three years, he said he hopes his legacy isn’t in buildings or park names but as a memory of a mayor who loved his city and moved it in a positive direction.
“I never felt more loved than I did during this campaign,” he said. “I felt the community love me. I felt a community protect me. I want the community to feel the same way I felt during this campaign with me and them, because I love them. And I want to protect them and I want to take care of them.”
He reiterated messages from his campaign about keeping momentum in the city.
“Momentum for me means a number of things,” Ross said. “It means economic development. It means bringing quality jobs here, increasing the average wage like we have done, bringing new headquarters to Arlington. But momentum also means doing something unique with our community.”
He wants to continue the yearslong trend of decreasing crime rates in the city and attracting new businesses and headquarters to the city.
Arlington’s diversity also plays a role in his plans for his final term, Ross said.
“It enhances who we are,” Ross said. “It gives us such tremendous perspectives on where we wanna go, and where we want to go as a community is holding each other up, respecting one another, loving one another and treating each other with decency.”
Overall, Ross said, not much about his style of leadership or his priorities will change in his final term.
“Everything I do, I measure it by what is best for the city, what’s best for our community,” Ross said. “So my last term, I don’t really see it being any different. Is there a little relief knowing I never have to run again? Hell yeah, there’s a little relief, knowing I never have to run again.”
City Council
In District 5, which covers parts of central and east Arlington, Brittney Garcia-Dumas, founder and CEO of BGD Marketing, has unseated incumbent Rebecca Boxall, according to unofficial results.
Garcia-Dumas netted 55.1% of the vote, while Boxall received 44.8%.
In District 3, which covers southeast Arlington, incumbent Nikkie Hunter got 73.7% of the vote against business owner Kelly Burke, who got 26.2% of the vote.
In District 4, which covers parts of west and central Arlington, Planning and Zoning Commissioner Tom Ware won a three-candidate race with 51.1% of the vote, according to unofficial results.
Tarrant County Republican precinct chair Lisa Ventura trails him with 23.5% of the vote, while local activist Rojo Meixueiro carried 25.2% of the votes.
District 8, which represents the entire city, will head to a runoff election, as no candidate reached 50% of the vote.
Arlington ISD trustee Melody Fowler and Jason Shelton, sociology professor and director of the Center for African American Studies at UT Arlington, will face off on June 13. They netted 46.9% and 38.2% of the vote, respectively.
Realtor Corey Harris, who also ran for District 8, got 14.8% of the vote.
Street maintenance tax
The renewal of a quarter-cent sales tax rate, which is dedicated to maintaining Arlington’s roads, was approved with 78.1% of the vote, according to unofficial results.
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Chris Moss is a reporter for the Arlington Report. Contact him at chris.moss@arlingtonreport.org.
