Kirk Watson re-elected as Mayor of Austin

Kirk Watson re-elected as Austin's mayor

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson has been re-elected to the seat to serve a full four-year term

AUSTIN - Five candidates battled it out for the position of Austin mayor. The incumbent, Kirk Watson, has been re-elected to the seat.

Watson was mayor of Austin from 1997 until 2001. He then spent 13 years working in the Texas Senate.

On Thursday, Nov. 14, Watson announced on X he won by a margin of over 104,000 votes, and will not have to go into a runoff election.

He will serve a four-year term in the mayor's office.

In 2023, Watson returned to Austin City Hall to take his third term, but his term in office was cut short when the city voted to align the mayoral and presidential elections. He campaigned for reelection because he said work still needed to be done.

The other contenders in the race were former City Council member Kathie Tovo; Executive Director of GAVA Carmen Llanes Pulido; former executive director of Central Texas Interfaith Doug Greco; and retired U.S. Air Force veteran and owner of a construction services company, Jeffery Bowen.