North Texas' two biggest cities have new leaders, and a longtime incumbent in a third major city lost his bid for a third term after runoff elections on Saturday.
In Fort Worth, former Tarrant County Tax Assessor/Collector Betsy Price had 56 percent of the vote in the race against former City Council member Jim Lane with 96 percent of precincts reporting.
Price declared victory, saying Lane conceded defeat.
"I'm so excited it's just almost overwhelming. The love, the support, the interest in the campaign that we've received form the community is incredible. We're just so excited about serving our great city," Lane said.
The city's first new mayor in eight years admits that she'll have a lot to learn. "We have a great Council to work with, a great city manager, city staff," Lane said. "I'm excited about getting out, getting my boots on the ground. We've said all along we're going to open and listening in the community, and we plan to do that immediately."
In Dallas, former Pizza Hut CEO Mike Rawlings defeated former Dallas police Chief David Kunkle. Rawlings had 56 percent of the vote with 99 percent of precincts checking in.
Shortly after 9:30, Kunkle called Rawlings to offer his congratulations and support. "I believe he will be a great mayor for Dallas," Kunkle tweeted.
"I think Dallas wants to be optimistic about its future. I think they want a leader who has clear visions about big ideas like education," Rawlings said. "I think we've got to get our City Council aligned around the strategic initiatives we're talking about. I'm going to be starting immediately on how we work with DISD on education, and we're going to be working on the budget."
Rawlings will be the guest on Channel 8's Inside Texas Politics Sunday morning at 9 o'clock.
Herbert Gears, the two-term incumbent mayor of Irving, lost his re-election bid. Marketing and communications consultant Beth Van Duyne had secured 57 percent of the vote with all precincts reporting. She becomes the first woman elected mayor in Irving.
Van Duyne and Gears are longtime political rivals who waged an expensive and largely negative campaign.
"I think what you're hearing right now is a response to overspending; you're overhearing a response to backroom politics; and really to projects that we spend millions of dollars on that don't go anywhere," Van Duyne said. "The citizens have spoke loud and clear, and I've heard their message, and intend on acting on it."
Gears conceded that beating his challenger posed a challenge. "We knew going in that her spell is strong, and that we had quite a problem to overcome," he said. "You know, no one's lasted longer than six years in this job in the past. You do great service for the community and every decision has a competing interest."
In Keller, voters turned down a 13-cent property tax hike proposal that was being pitched as a way to save jobs in the Keller ISD.
Brad Watson in Dallas and Jonathan Betz in Fort Worth contributed to this report.
