{"id":485607,"date":"2026-11-04T03:26:35","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T03:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/485607\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T03:26:35","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T03:26:35","slug":"heres-who-is-leading-in-corpus-christi-mayor-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/485607\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s who is leading in Corpus Christi mayor election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who gets to be the mayor of Corpus Christi<\/a> hasn’t been decided yet, but early voting returns show incumbent Paulette Guajardo in the lead with 40.22% of the vote, followed by City Councilman Gil Hernandez, who picked up 23.49%.<\/p>\n

Seven people are vying for the position \u2014 in addition to Guajardo and Hernandez, current City Council District 4 representative Kaylynn Paxson and political newcomers David Ainsworth Sr., who in city documents described his occupation as “president”; Chelise Hyatt, development executive for Scouting America South Texas Council; John Calkusic, described in city documents as “business owner”; and Dave Heasley, a self-employed welder and mechanic.<\/p>\n

Guajardo, at a watch party at Brewster Street Ice House on the Southside, said that while the returns weren’t final, “they certainly show the direction in which the election is going.”<\/p>\n

“We’re super excited \u2014 everybody is filled with energy and adrenaline, she said. “But we’re going to wait and see. \u2026 We’ve got a long night ahead of us to see the final results, but this is very exciting to see, to know that the numbers are as high as they are at this point in time.”<\/p>\n

Hernandez, speaking at Brewster Street Ice House downtown, said early voting returns were “along the lines of what I expected, considering how many people were in the race.”<\/p>\n

“I expect the breakout for the Election Day voting to be similar to early voting, and I don’t think the numbers are going to change that much, maybe a point or two,” he said. “But ultimately, I still think no one will reach 50% plus one and we’ll end up in a runoff.”<\/p>\n

The mayor serves in two-year terms and earns $9,000 annually.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/p>\n

From left, Corpus Christi mayoral candidates Kaylynn Paxson, Paulette Guajardo, Gil Hernandez, Chelise Hyatt and Dave Heasley. Candidates David Ainsworth Sr. and John Calkusic are not pictured.<\/p>\n

The position, in some ways, is a figurehead \u2014 representing and advocating for the city within and outside the community, leading the council meetings and building consensus among council members.<\/p>\n

The mayor’s vote carries the same weight as the eight other council members; however, he or she plays a more significant role in deciding what goes on City Council agendas for discussions or a vote.<\/p>\n

Should final results show no mayoral candidate earning at least 50.1% of the vote, the two highest vote-getters would go to a runoff.<\/p>\n

That would be scheduled for Dec. 12, with early voting from Nov. 30 to Dec. 8.<\/p>\n

Early voting returns show who is leading in the race.<\/p>\n

Full counts with Election Day voting are expected to be available within a few hours.<\/p>\n

Kaylynn Paxson (current District 4 representative): 14.95%<\/p>\n

David Ainsworth Sr.: 13.41%<\/p>\n

Paulette Guajardo (incumbent): 40.22%<\/p>\n

Gil Hernandez (current District 5 representative): 23.49%<\/p>\n

The current term has seen sometimes-intense strife among council members on some of the major policy issues \u2014 most acutely, the progress of the proposed Inner Harbor desalination plant.<\/p>\n

While the city was spared from reaching the most dire of water shortages \u2014 upstream flooding filling Lake Corpus Christi over the summer \u2014 Corpus Christi’s situation made it to the limelight of national media agencies, as did the arguments on the council.<\/p>\n

Nearly as polarizing was a series of decisions made to have a disciplinary hearing for Guajardo related to a $2 million tax incentive. It had been approved by the majority of the council in 2024 for development of a new Homewood Suites downtown.<\/p>\n

The majority of the six-council member tribunal voted to suspend Guajardo for 30 days, a period that concluded in early September. She has denied wrongdoing in the matter.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.<\/p>\n

Kirsten Crow covers city government and water news. Have a story idea? Contact her at kirsten.crow@caller.com.<\/p>\n

Consider supporting local journalism with a subscription to the Caller-Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Here’s who is leading in Corpus Christi mayor election<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who gets to be the mayor of Corpus Christi hasn’t been decided yet, but early voting returns show…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-485607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485607","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=485607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}