Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, a Democrat, defeated Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) in a runoff election Saturday to become the next mayor of Houston.
The Associated Press called the race in Whitmire’s favor at 7:23 p.m. local time, not even half an hour after the polls closed. Almost two-thirds of mail-in ballots and early votes were for Whitmire, the Texas Tribune reported.
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Whitmire is the Texas Senate’s most senior member, having represented Houston since 1983. At 74, he is set to replace Sylvester Turner, a term-limited Democrat.
Although both Whitmire and Jackson Lee are Democrats, the former garnered more centrist and conservative voters in the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the United States.
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