Speculation and campaigning over the permanent mayoral replacement for Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro has dragged on for over a year.
It’s supposed to end on Saturday, when voters will choose between Mayor Ivy Taylor and former State Senator Leticia Van de Putte in a runoff election. But we might have to wait just a little bit longer than that.
With totals from early voting coming in, prognosticators predict that the runoff election will be tight. So tight, in fact, that the race might not even be called this weekend.
"It might not end on Saturday," Bexar County Democratic Party Chairman Manuel Medina said to The Texas Tribune. “It might be that close.”
Van de Putte led all candidates in the general election with over 30 percent of the vote. But Taylor nipped at her heels, trailing by just two percentage points.
Over 60,000 people voted early — a higher-than-expected turnout. That could give the edge to Taylor, whose popularity with older, more conservative voters is the same crowd who hits the polls early on.
But both campaigns have conducted massive get out the vote efforts to galvanize their base — Van de Putte on the West Side, Taylor on the North Side — and bring new voters to the polls.
Polls will open tomorrow morning at 7 a.m., and close at 7 p.m. The District 7 seat is also on the ballot, with Mari Aguirre-Rodriguez running against incumbent Cris Medina in the only City Council runoff.
