San Antonio hasn’t had a municipal election with this much at stake in quite some time, as voters choose a new mayor and 10 City Council members on the May 3 ballot.
In four City Council races, voters are electing someone entirely new to take the place of longtime incumbents — meaning the city’s predominantly left-leaning council and mayor’s office could face a major shakeup.
For the first time, this incoming class of city leaders will serve four-year terms before they have to seek reelection, meaning this is the last chance votes get to weigh in until 2029.
Read about all of the candidates in the San Antonio Report’s 2025 Voter Guide.
Election day is Saturday, May 3, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
If no candidate takes at least 50% of the vote, the top two finishers in that race will advance to a June 7 runoff.
In addition to the city election, eight San Antonio-area school districts are holding school board races on the May 3 ballot — some of which have drawn big spending from outside groups and teachers’ unions.
Several districts are also hosting school bond elections — votes that take on additional significance as state leaders try to raise the support threshold for bonds after this legislative session.
Plus, nine Bexar County suburbs are holding municipal elections on May 3.
Download a copy of your personal sample ballot to see what races and ballot measures you’ll be asked to weigh in on.
Here are the top 10 races the San Antonio Report editors and reporters will be watching on election night.
1. San Antonio Mayor
San Antonio is gearing up to elect a replacement for term-limited Mayor Ron Nirenberg — the city’s first new mayor in eight years — and a crowded field of 27 candidates are running.
As of the most recent campaign fundraising reports, four candidates appear to have pulled ahead in spending: Tech entrepreneur Beto Altamirano, Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8), former Air Force Under Secretary Gina Ortiz Jones, and former Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos.
A UTSA survey conducted in early April offered some of the only independent public polling on the race, and suggested voters were still broadly undecided on their choices just days out from the start of early voting.
Jones held the only clear lead in the UTSA poll, and the top tier featured many candidates who were not among the top fundraisers, including longtime Northside Councilman John Courage (D9), Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6), Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4), former District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry and Department of Defense employee Tim Westley.
In the final weeks, PAC money has poured in to influence San Antonio voters in a nonpartisan race that both Republicans and Democrats say carries statewide significance.
Ninenberg spent much of his last term fighting state GOP leaders and stumping for Democrat Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, but Texas’ big city mayors have been steadily shifting away from progressivism, and both parties are closely monitoring voter sentiment in one of the state’s last Democratic strongholds.
Pablos has ties to state GOP leaders, while Jones has run for Congress twice as a Democrat. Altamirano spent his early career working for Democrats at the state and national level, despite campaigning as more of a centrist in this race.
Those three City Hall outsiders have leveraged their political connections to suck up much of the oxygen and fundraising in a crowded, confusing field, while local groups like the police and fire unions have opted to wait for the runoff before making an endorsement.
Historically, however, San Antonio voters have shown a clear preference for candidates with council experience. In 70 years, the city has only elected one mayor who had not served on the City Council first, attorney Phil Hardberger in 2005, and the five past and present council members in this year’s race are hoping to keep that streak going.
2. City Council District 1
First-term Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1) faces a barn-burner reelection race with rivaling neighborhood groups, scorched-earth political consultants and pro-business interests all weighing in.
Kaur pulled off an upset victory in 2023, defeating an incumbent to represent an important downtown- and near-Northside district that’s been home to nearly all of the city’s recent major development projects.
This year, her nine opponents include many who were motivated to run by their personal experience fighting city projects in District 1, like VIA Metropolitan Transit’s Green Line, the new Missions’ Minor League Baseball stadium and a proposed NBA arena.
In the past 30 days Kaur has spent more than any other council incumbent and most mayoral hopefuls — plus the pro-business group San Antonio Equity Alliance put $25,000 into the race on her behalf.
Hear from the full list of District 1 candidates in our 2025 Voter Guide.
Her best-funded opponent Julisa Medrano-Guerra, whose campaign hired a private investigator and funded an onslaught of attack ads after the bar she owns didn’t get a construction mitigation grant from the city. She’s only raised about $1,000 but spent about $63,000 of her own money.
Other top fundraisers include Patty Gibbons, a land surveyor and neighborhood leader who fought being redistricting into D1, and Susan Strawn, a former U.S. prosecutor who served on the River Road Neighborhood Association board and fought the removal of trees in Brackenride Park.
3. City Council District 4
Despite two years left of eligibility in the seat, this year Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4) threw her name in for mayor instead of running for reelection.
Longtime District 4 staffer Edward Mungia, who worked under both Rocha Garcia and Rey Saldaña and served on South San ISD’s board, was among the early candidates to launch a campaign to replace her, and has led the pack in fundraising.
He faces opponents who say the city’s Southwest Side is being left behind, including McNair Middle School principal Johnathon Cruz, former South San ISD trustee Ernesto Arrellano Jr. and trucking company owner Jose “Pepe” Martinez.
4. City Council District 6
A race to represent the fast-growing far West Side drew eight candidates this year, as longtime Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6) leaves the seat to run for mayor.
Before the left-leaning Cabello Havrda, D6 elected conservative Greg Brockhouse, so it’s politics are viewed as somewhat fickle. Notably, it’s one of the few races where neither the police union nor the fire union have endorsed a candidate, and candidates’ backgrounds range across the partisan spectrum.
Watch the candidates participate in the San Antonio Report’s District 6 debate.
Top fundraisers include a former labor organizer from the city’s employee union, Kelly Ann Gonzalez, as well as former District 1 staffer Lawson Alaniz-Picasso. The race also features two City Hall veterans, Vanessa Chavez and Gerald Lopez.
Other candidates include Democratic Socialists of America-backed Ric Galvan, libertarian activist Chris Baecker, a former Texas House candidate who ran under both party affiliations, Carlos Antonio Raymond, and a conservative-minded former councilman who was voted out amid several scandals, Bobby Herrera.
5. City Council District 8
District 8 on the Northwest Side includes some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in San Antonio, and at times looks very little like the rest of the city.
The expensive race to replace Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8) has attracted some of the most attention among council races this year, with candidates jockeying as early as last March.
In the final weeks leading up to the election, two of the race’s top fundraisers have been attacking one another over unpaid taxes, a “fabricated” ethics complaint and accusations of influence-peddling.
One also got help from a strangely well-funded new education-focused PAC with ties to public charter school advocates.
6. City Council District 9
This far Northside race has become something of a proxy war between local elected Democrats and Republicans, who lined up behind Angi Taylor Aramburu and Misty Spears, respectively.
Longtime Councilman John Courage (D9) ran for office many times as a Democrat before serving on the council, and now that he’s leaving the seat, conservatives are eager to elect one of their own in a district considered among the city’s most red.
Spears has dominated in fundraising and has billboards sponsored by the police union, but faced criticism about less-fiscally conservative personal finances.
The race includes a number of compelling candidates worth watching in our District 9 debate.
7. San Antonio ISD & 8. Northside ISD
School board races in San Antonio ISD and Northside ISD got heated this year as teachers’ unions have sought to promote a new generation of progressive leaders through these seats.
In SAISD’s unusual District 1 race, nearly $60,000 has been spent between the campaigns of union-backed Trustee Sarah Sorensen, who faces a challenge from former Democratic state lawmaker, Mike Villarreal, who got help from a business-backed PAC.
The contest drew endorsements from a number of San Antonio’s elected Democrats who split their support between the two candidates, with U.S. Rep. Greg Casar and Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez behind Sorensen and state Rep. Diego Bernal and state Sen. José Menéndez behind Villarreal.
Northside ISD’s races have been much less expensive. But as union-backed challengers take on longtime incumbents, a conservative group that was active in past election cycles recently reemerged to support two incumbents, District 6 Trustee Carol Harle and District 7 Trustee Karen Freeman.
9. Alamo Colleges District & 10. East Central
In East Central ISD, all eyes will be on a bond proposal this Saturday, just months after voters rejected the district’s last bond proposal.
The district came back with a smaller ask this time, but unlike nearby districts where enrollment numbers are shrinking, East Central’s leaders say their student population is growing rapidly and they desperately need to build more facilities to keep up.
If the proposal fails, they’ll be left with few other options to generate new revenue. A PAC to support it has spent about $17,000.
On the ballot of all Bexar County voters this year is a record-high nearly $1 billion Alamo Colleges District bond to build new facilities and create new academic programs.
Supporters include many business leaders who say the money is needed to build the county’s future workforce, while the Bexar GOP came out against it, saying local government already carries too much debt. A PAC to support the bond has spent about $340,000.
