Here’s a result from Saturday I missed originally.
Quentin Wiltz
A Democratic-backed candidate has won a closely contested mayoral race in Pearland, Texas, a Republican-leaning suburb of Houston in Brazoria County that has consistently voted for President Donald Trump since 2016.
Winning candidate Quentin Wiltz shared the results of the contest on his Instagram account on Saturday, writing: “I am deeply humbled, incredibly grateful, and honored by the trust you have placed in me.”
He also told Newsweek in a statement: “Pearland has spoken. We are a city ready for change, and I’m looking forward to building a better future for everyone who lives here.”
“We have a lot of work to do. This victory is for all of us, and the victories ahead will come by building unity and working together as one city, both East and West,” he added.
[…]
While the Pearland results have not yet been officially certified, early figures show Wiltz securing 51 percent of the vote compared with Republican-endorsed candidate Tony Carbone’s 49 percent.
Carbone also congratulated Wiltz in a Facebook post, writing: “I wish him success as he serves our community,” adding that “tonight didn’t end the way we had hoped, but I’m deeply grateful for the support, encouragement, and trust so many in our community showed throughout this campaign.”
Brazoria County Democratic Party told Newsweek the impact of Wiltz’ victory “cannot be overstated,” as Pearland voters “elected a Black Democrat to be mayor in a red county and a red state.”
“This is historic and we will celebrate the success and continue the work. November is right around the corner and we have an entire slate of highly qualified candidates ready to serve,” the group added.
This is the third time that Quentin Wiltz has run for Mayor of Pearland, which is on a three-year electoral cycle. He ran in 2017, against the then-91-year-old (!) incumbent Mayor Tom Reid. That race went to a runoff, as there was a third candidate, and Reid won the runoff by a wider margin (and with higher turnout) after some ugliness in a Council race that also went to a runoff. It’s not obvious where to look for Pearland election results – I know they used to be on the Brazoria County elections page, but that appears to have been revamped since 2017 and they’re not there anymore. Some googling got me this:
May 2017: “Mayor Tom Reid will face off in a run off election against Quentin Wiltz on Saturday, June 10. Reid received 3,703 votes (48.85%), while Wiltz received 3,460 votes (45.64%). Jimi Amos received 418 votes (5.51%).
June 2017 runoff results: “Tom Reid has been reelected as Mayor. Reid received 7,960 votes (59.37%), while Wiltz received 5,447 votes (40.63%).”
I was curious about how often Wiltz had run since then – there were two other opportunities between 2017 and now – and after some more googling, I found this story from the November 2020 election:
Former City Council member Kevin Cole has been elected as the new mayor of Pearland, replacing 95-year-old Tom Reid, who held the position for most of the past 42 years, making him one of the longest-serving mayors in the country.
Cole secured 56.7% of the vote in Brazoria County with all 46 polling locations reporting, as of about 10 pm Tuesday night.
“Pearland, thank you for the support and confidence to be the next Mayor of this great City,” Cole wrote on Facebook. “I look forward to serving all the citizens our City. I want to have a City where we can Live, Work, Play, and Pray.”
Though officially a nonpartisan race, Cole was supported by the Republicans and faced off against former parks and recreation board chairman Quentin Wiltz, who gained support from the Democrats.
Cole apparently ran unopposed in 2023, so Wiltz won against his third opponent. I’ll look to see if there’s some more local coverage of this, as the only other stories I saw when I looked around on Sunday were from Newsweek, similar in tone and content to that MSN story, and this tiny blurb in Community Impact, which just noted Wiltz’ win. This is a notable result, so hopefully there will be better coverage of it. Whatever the case, my congratulations to Mayor-elect Quentin Wiltz.
When I was looking for the results Saturday night, I found them in a national news feed. You’d think that the city website would be on top of it, but not this time. The margin of victory was around 263, so there’s my chance to feel that my vote really did matter.
I met Quentin and talked with him a few times back when volunteering for Sri Kulkarni’s House campaigns. Smart guy and wishing him success.
There’s a link on Pearland’s city site at https://www.pearlandtx.gov/departments/city-hall/election (the link to Election registry at the bottom). It’s a bit clunky, but does go back to the 60s.
Coverage on NPR hello Houston today, MSNOW on the 5th, and KPRC & ABC 13 yesterday 🙂