Election 2024: Recap of Austin City Council election results
AUSTIN, Texas - The next Austin City Council will look slightly different. Who is filling some of those seats is still up in the air.
Mayor Kirk Watson slightly passed the 50 percent threshold on Election Night, but a few lingering ballots still need to be counted. He could face Carmen Llanes Pulido in a runoff.
Live results: Austin election results
District 2 and District 4 incumbents Chito Vela and Vanessa Fuentes kept their seats in a landslide.
In District 6, incumbent Mackenzie Kelly lost her seat to Krista Laine.
Kelly was known for advocating for public safety. She posted a statement on X:
"Really proud of the work we accomplished, but we came up short this time. Thank you to everyone who supported us. I’ll continue to fight for our community—because we’re all fighters. Just because we’re down today doesn’t mean we’re ever out. Onward to the future!"
Laine shared her thoughts.
"I'm really hoping we can move past looking at a city council member as the conservative voice or the liberal voice and instead get focused on fundamental city services. I think that a lot of what we've seen in the elections today is a hunger to get things done," she said.
She says she understands the unique challenges of her district, near the line between Travis and Williamson counties.
"It is really important to find some ways to improve 911 response time for critical emergencies. Better reliability of utilities, both power, keeping the lights on, and also water and wastewater, and also safer streets," she said.
The top two contenders for District 7, Mike Siegel and Gary Blesdoe, each had less than 50 percent of the vote and will face each other in a runoff election in December.
Marc Duchen narrowly won the District 10 seat.
The newly elected council members will start their new terms in January.