CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — With 50.6% of the vote, it appears Mayor Paulette Guajardo has been elected for her third term. Guajardo received 14,254 votes to Michael Hunter's 13,918.
All election results are unofficial.
"I'm so happy and I have to thank all of the residents of Corpus Christi that came out and voted. Not just in the general election obviously, but in this runoff. And of course, I want to thank all of our volunteers," Guajardo said.
Since the first numbers were reported from early voting, the race between her and Michael Hunter was between 3 percentage points until all 15 voting centers reported their results.
Guajardo and Hunter needed a runoff after no one secured the 50% majority in the November Election. Guajardo was significantly ahead of the other five contenders garnering 47% of the vote. Hunter was behind Guajardo with 32%.
Progress was the heart of Guajardo’s campaign. Before serving two terms as an at-large city council member, Guajardo has served two terms as Corpus Christi Mayor. She highlighted her efforts to continually fund improvements for the police and fire departments. Guajardo said, with her at the helm, the city is in an excellent economic time with growing businesses interested in moving into the area. She has supported desalination and the Rapid Repavement Plan.
Guajardo spoke to KRIS 6 News following the election and laid out her immediate goals for her third term.
"Priority is always our police officers and our firefighter. That's number one and it will continue to be number one as long as I'm the mayor. Secondly, most importantly, there's fixing our streets, creating jobs, like Bass Pro Shop. I have a vision for Corpus Christi, that is obviously very shared," she said.
Michael Hunter had served on the city council for over eight years. He has reached the limit of four consecutive two-year terms on City Council.
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