{"id":281213,"date":"2026-05-06T12:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/281213\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T12:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:11:20","slug":"top-takeaways-from-may-2-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/281213\/","title":{"rendered":"Top takeaways from May 2 election"},"content":{"rendered":"

An exceptionally sleepy May 2 municipal election has some local candidates and party leaders calling to consolidate more elections in November, as the City of San Antonio has recently done<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Only about a quarter of Bexar County voters had races on their ballots, from a patchwork of five school districts, 14 smaller municipalities and one community college board district holding elections on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Of those, roughly 11,400 of 319,000 eligible voters \u2014 or 3.58% \u2014 turned out to vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe May 2 election experienced the lowest turnout I have observed since joining the team,\u201d said Elections Administrator Michele Carew, who started her role<\/a> in March 2025.<\/p>\n

Contributing to this year\u2019s abysmal turnout was an election with no city- or county-wide measures on the ballot. <\/p>\n

In 2022, the May municipal election overlapped with<\/a> San Antonio\u2019s bond election, and more than 92,000 votes were cast. In 2024, the state added elected members to county appraisal district boards<\/a>, which meant every Bexar County resident had something on their ballot, and about 37,000 raw votes<\/a> were cast. <\/p>\n

(Appraisal District board seats are on the ballot again in 2026<\/a>, but this time not until November.)<\/p>\n

This year, elections workers say many voters showed up expecting to have something to vote on, and had to be turned away. Others believed they were showing up to vote in the primary runoff \u2014 a different election\u00a0that will be held May 26<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy only thought is just how few people came out to vote in this election,\u201d said Bexar County Democratic Party Chair Michelle Lowe Solis. \u201c[It\u2019s] such a shift from the [March] primary<\/a> where we had more than 150% increase in total turnout over 2022.\u00a0 Municipalities may want to consider shifting to November like [San Antonio] is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Republican Party of Bexar County did not respond to a request for comment on the May 2 election results.<\/p>\n

See results by turnout percentage in the map below.<\/p>\n

In both deep blue Bexar County and across the red state of Texas, municipal elections and school board races offered some predictable Democratic gains in what\u2019s expected to be a very strong year for the party<\/a> \u2014 along with some scattered bright spots for Republicans.<\/p>\n

Here are the top takeaways from a mixed bag May 2 election.<\/p>\n

Red response to blue wave<\/p>\n

Across the state, neither Republicans nor Democrats had a definitively good night. <\/p>\n

Democrats have been benefitting from major backlash to President Donald Trump since his return to office last year, highlighted by to Democrat Taylor Rehmet\u2019s 31-point swing<\/a> in a Fort Worth special election earlier this year. <\/p>\n

Yet on Saturday night, a Republican won a special election<\/a> for a state Senate seat in the Houston area with a whopping 75% of the vote. Republican Brett Ligon will replace former state Sen. Brandon Creighton, who Gov. Greg Abbott tapped to lead the Texas Tech University System, in a district that\u2019s deeply red. But his overwhelming victory seemed to indicate GOP voters have been rattled by the nonstop news of Democratic over-performance in elections so far this year.<\/p>\n

Right-leaning candidates also found success in some non-partisan city elections in Fort Worth<\/a>, North Richland Hills, Keller and even the Bexar County suburb<\/a> of Shavano Park.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, left-leaning candidates notched some unlikely victories in the Houston suburb of Pearland<\/a>, where they won a mayor\u2019s race, and Arlington, where they flipped a council seat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Democrats sweep school board races<\/p>\n

While the municipal elections across Texas offered some mixed results, school board races were largely dominated by one party or the other.<\/p>\n

Democrats have been pushing back hard<\/a> in recent years to reverse conservative gains<\/a> on local school boards. This year \u2014 amid backlash to major school funding changes and state laws limiting what public schools can teach \u2014 they seemed to have the wind at their backs.<\/p>\n

Two candidates backed by local Democrats won their races against conservatives in North East ISD<\/a> \u2014 completing a sweep<\/a> that started two years ago when the other half of the board was up.<\/p>\n

\"\"North East ISD (NEISD) board of trustees candidate Caprice Ann Garcia speaks to voters and members of the North East Bexar County Democrats during a candidate forum and meeting at the NEBCD headquarters on April 11, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

NEISD is one of the reddest districts in Bexar County, and conservative PACs found success electing candidates there in 2022<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But this year Democratic PACs and teachers\u2019 unions dominated the spending<\/a>, and the North East Bexar County Democrats (NEBCD) even hired a field director to organize around these races. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s as a conservative PAC that had been active in the past dissolved after the last election, and a replacement never seemed to emerge to help conservative incumbent Diane Sciba Villarreal<\/a> or state Rep. Marc LaHood\u2019s (R-San Antonio) recruit, Cheryl \u201cCheri\u201d Ann Ettinger<\/a>, both of whom fell Saturday by large margins.<\/p>\n

\"\"North East ISD school board candidate Cheri Ettinger attends a meet and greet event and rally for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and congressional candidate Brandon Herrera at The Divide on April 30, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a notable absence of the opposition,\u201d said Cameron Jones, who oversaw the North East Bexar County Democratic Party\u2019s education campaign. \u201cWe were just waiting for that shoe to drop, and I don\u2019t think that it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar scenario seemed to played out in North Texas<\/a>, where conservatives were ousted from a trio of seats on Grapevine-Colleyville ISD\u2019s school board.<\/p>\n

Just north of Austin, two left-leaning candidates also defeated incumbents on .<\/p>\n

In Bexar County, Jones said that organizing around the education races has been a valuable exercise for Democrats, who got to meet a wide swath of voters they will need to win over to be successful in partisan races this November.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to hear what they care about, what they value in education, in the schools, and honestly get in touch with people that are interested in politics that maybe don\u2019t feel comfortable talking with us initially because we\u2019re Democrats,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

An outlier in Alamo Heights<\/p>\n

One exception to Democrats\u2019 school board victories was the wealthy, conservative enclave of Alamo Heights ISD, which serves about 5,000 students.<\/p>\n

Two candidates with unabashedly liberal platforms<\/a> ran railing against the board\u2019s handling of a new parents\u2019 rights law, in a district that typically doesn\u2019t have contested races.<\/p>\n

But they were soundly defeated by the incumbents<\/a> who didn\u2019t lean into the partisanship, instead calling themselves a \u201cconsensus board.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Trustee Hunter Kingman speaks during a Alamo Heights ISD school board candidate forum at Alamo Heights Junior School auditorium on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. Credit: Jo E. Norris for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Challengers chalked the losses up to a small community that\u2019s difficult to break into, and prone to sweeping disagreements \u201cunder the rug.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t necessarily say it just based on our message,\u201d said Bianca Cerqueira<\/a>, a neuroscientist who was among the challengers who fell short by a wide margin. \u201c\u2026 We plan on having more progressive candidates the next cycle and the next cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

School bonds shrunk<\/p>\n

Even as left-leaning school board candidates made gains in recent years, many school districts across Texas have seen their bond proposals<\/a> voted down.<\/p>\n

This year Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District joined a growing list of districts that had previously been unsuccessful, but came back with a smaller ask \u2014 as East Central ISD did<\/a> last May<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Signs for the Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD bond election are posted around the early voting poll site outside of the Universal City Library on April 28, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Overall, enthusiasm for bond proposals seemed mixed on Saturday. <\/p>\n

SCUCISD had the only school bond in Bexar County, and saw all three proposals pass with<\/a> more than 60% support. The least popular element, funding stadiums, was underwater in Bexar County but succeeded on the backs of Guadalupe County voters, who made up most of the electorate.<\/p>\n

In North Texas, the athletic facility portion of Arlington ISD\u2019s bond election failed<\/a> while other components succeeded, as did a similar proposal in Ponder ISD<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Dallas ISD\u2019s $6.2 billion bond package was approved<\/a> by wide margins, but smaller districts, Sanger ISD and Pilot Point ISD<\/a>, saw theirs fail.<\/p>\n

Only one runoff: Alamo Colleges Board<\/p>\n

This year Democrats started organizing around higher education races, and in Bexar County, an incumbent backed by the local Republican Party didn\u2019t make his runoff<\/a> in the county\u2019s only Alamo Colleges District board race.<\/p>\n

Read more: Higher-ed political woes rock sleepy Alamo Colleges board race<\/a><\/p>\n

The contest is now down to two candidates backed by local Democrats: certified public accountant\u00a0Robert Garcia<\/a> and longtime Palo Alto College professor\u00a0Carolyn DeLecour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A map of the early voting and election day voting locations for the June 13 Alamo Colleges board runoff is shown. Credit: Courtesy of Bexar County Elections Department<\/p>\n

The faculty union, which supports DeLecour, is part of a larger organization that\u2019s looking at community college board races across the state.<\/p>\n

The runoff in District 9<\/a> is the only contest that will appear on the June 13 runoff ballot.<\/p>\n

When the same seat went to a runoff in 2022, only about 4,500 votes were cast<\/a>. But that runoff was in December, when Alamo Colleges was holding its board elections in November.<\/p>\n

Early voting will take place June 1\u20138, with hours still to be determined, Carew said. <\/p>\n

Voters will have four early voting and election day sites to choose from: Encino Library, Northeast Lakeview College, Tobin Library and SAC Victory Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An exceptionally sleepy May 2 municipal election has some local candidates and party leaders calling to consolidate more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[84229,56135,103722,163,288,96846,16261,45692,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-281213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-alamo-college-district","tag-alamo-heights-isd","tag-carolyn-delecour","tag-education","tag-elections","tag-north-east-bexar-county-democrats","tag-north-east-isd","tag-robert-garcia","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281213","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=281213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}