UVALDE, Texas – Voters in Uvalde will decide who their mayor will be on Saturday in a runoff between the top two vote-getters from the Nov. 5 election.
Acting mayor Everado “Lalo” Zamora and city council member Hector Luevano were the top two candidates when November’s votes were counted. However, neither earned the required 50%-plus-one needed to win the race outright.
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Luevano, who is in his third term on the city council, was the top vote-getter with 43%. Zamora was second with 38% percent of the vote. Jennifer Gilleland finished third with the remaining 19% of votes.
Zamora has been the city’s acting mayor since April when Cody Smith abruptly resigned for unspecified health reasons just six months after he won a special election in November 2024.
Smith replaced Don McLaughlin Jr., who resigned to seek the District 80 seat in the Texas House of Representatives.
Luevano opted not to seek re-election for his District 2 city council seat. Donald “Mac” McLaughlin III, son of Uvalde’s former mayor, defeated Roy Mata in November to take Luevano’s place.
In addition to serving on the city council, Luevano has worked with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Department of Criminal Justice and the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office among other agencies, Luevano’s campaign website states.
Zamora was first elected to the city council in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. He has served as the city’s Mayor Pro Tem since 2022. According to his website, Zamora is a veteran of the Marine Corps and Army National Guard who served during Operation Desert Storm.
Zamora resigned his city council seat to run for mayor. Ernest Santos, who previously served on the council, was the lone candidate for District 1. Santos was sworn into office on Nov. 26.
After three mayoral elections in less than 12 months, the next election is expected to be in 2028. In Uvalde, mayors serve four-year terms.
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