A rare opening in San Antonio’s far Northside District 9 — one of the city’s reddest council districts — will come down to a fight between Democrats who’ve had an ally in the seat for eight years and conservatives who want to flip it.
The council race is nonpartisan, but the top two finishers moving on to a June 7 runoff have each run for partisan offices in the past, and finished just 400 votes apart Saturday night.
They’re vying to replace Councilman John Courage, a Democrat who held the seat for eight years and ran for mayor this year.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” played in the background as Misty Spears, a constituent services director in Bexar County’s Precinct 3, became emotional as she arrived at a watch party at Big’Z Burger Joint on the far North Side.
Spears, who had the backing of the police and fire unions, was the first-place finisher with 38.01% of the vote.
She was joined at her watch party by her husband, Fourth Court of Appeals Justice Adrian A. Spears, who was elected in November, and her boss, Commissioner Grant Moody (Pct. 3). Misty Spears ran unsuccessfully for County Clerk as a Republican in 2022.
“We’ve been doing elections for like three years. … I can’t believe we’ve done all this together,” she told the crowd Saturday.
Spears said a runoff is what she was expecting. “I feel really strong and we’re going to keep moving forward,” she said. “My message is … getting back to basics, approaching governance from a conservative point of view.”
Her opponent, Angi Taylor Aramburu, has a background as an arts management consultant and ran for Texas House District 122 as a Democrat in 2022.
She was endorsed by Courage in the race, and took 35.57% of the vote.
At Demo’s Greek Food on Saturday night, Aramburu credited Courage’s endorsement for helping propel her campaign.
“I’m really proud of this campaign, it’s really community-focused,” she said, between conversations with supporters.
In a seven-way race,there were several other candidates with conservative backgrounds. Nonprofit director April Chang took 9.04% of the vote, while longtime GOP staffer Daniel Mezza took 8.65%. Chang and Mezza held a joint watch party after becoming friends on the campaign trail.
Voter turnout amounted to less than 10% to 20% of voters in the district.
Political consultant Christian Anderson said that is not typical for District 9.
“I think the biggest [reason] is, the number of candidates who ran for mayor made it difficult for voters to sink their teeth into the choice — into this election — and that certainly impacted the turnout down-ballot,” he said.
