{"id":207520,"date":"2026-03-17T00:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/207520\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T00:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:08:08","slug":"rodney-anderson-wins-grand-prairie-city-council-special-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/207520\/","title":{"rendered":"Rodney Anderson wins Grand Prairie City Council special election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Texas House representative and former Dallas County Republican Party chair Rodney Anderson won the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.keranews.org\/news\/2026-03-12\/candidates-for-grand-prairie-city-council-runoff-election-outline-priorities-experience\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">special runoff election<\/a> for Grand Prairie City Council Place 8 on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>He defeated educator and community advocate Ana Coca by 84 votes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1GfV6TwL26\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">according to unofficial results<\/a>. Turnout was low, as is typical for local special elections, with only 3,934 ballots cast.<\/p>\n<p>Grand Prairie\u2019s electorate stretches across Dallas, Tarrant and Ellis counties.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"Ana Coca and Rodney Anderson faced each other in a runoff election for Grand Prairie City Council Place 8 on March 14.\"  width=\"880\" height=\"587\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773706088_650_.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Courtesy \/ Ana Coca and Rodney Anderson<\/p>\n<p>        Ana Coca and Rodney Anderson faced each other in a runoff election for Grand Prairie City Council Place 8 on March 14.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1HyCkoGeVB\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Anderson wrote on Facebook<\/a> Sunday, \u201cI will have much more to say at a later time. It\u2019s been a long day and I\u2019m seriously thankful people cared enough to go vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor perspective, Grand Prairie as a city is larger than the house district I represented in both population and land mass,\u201d Anderson continued. \u201cIt is a big, big city and this is an at large seat. Thank you to everyone who voted for me, and I will work hard to earn the votes of those who didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a social media post, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1Zvq5A8dgq\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Coca\u2019s campaign wrote<\/a>, \u201cIn just three short months, this community came together in an incredible way. Neighbors volunteered their time, friends donated what they could, and so many people showed up because they believed in Ana and the vision she had for Grand Prairie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cComing within 84 votes of victory is AMAZING and a powerful reminder of what is possible when the community speaks up,\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n<p>Anderson steps into the seat amid significant changes to the makeup of the city council.<\/p>\n<p>He takes over Place 8, an at-large seat, from Grand Prairie Mayor Pro Tem Junior Ezeonu. Ezeonu recently won the Democratic primary for Texas House District 101 and is <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/03\/04\/3-arlington-area-state-races-on-tuesdays-primary-ballots\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">running for the seat unopposed<\/a> in the general election.<\/p>\n<p>Another Grand Prairie City Council member, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.keranews.org\/news\/2026-03-16\/grand-prairie-city-council-member-mike-del-bosque-dies-at-53-colleagues-praise-legacy\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mike Del Bosque, died Friday<\/a> at 53. His District 3 seat will remain vacant until the May 2 municipal election, city officials confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Got a tip? Email Andy Lusk at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.keranews.org\/news\/2026-03-16\/mailto:alusk@kera.org\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">alusk@kera.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/trk.kera.org\/newsfr20\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">making a tax-deductible gift today<\/a>. Thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Texas House representative and former Dallas County Republican Party chair Rodney Anderson won the special runoff election&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-207520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}