George Morales III took a sizable early lead over Susanna Ledesma-Woody for the Precinct 4 spot on the Travis County Commissioners Court in Tuesday's Democratic primary runoff election.
Morales received about 58% of the 7,263 early votes compared with Ledesma-Woody's 42%, Travis County early voting returns show. With no Republican on November's general election ballot, the winner is all but guaranteed to win the southeastern Travis County seat on the five-member court, which is the county's highest governing body.
The victor will replace longtime Commissioner Margaret Gómez, who will retire in 2027 after 52 years in public service and more than three decades on the Commissioners Court.
Morales and Ledesma-Woody advanced to the runoff by earning the most votes out of a field of four in the March Democratic primary. In that race, Morales received 36.9% of the 39,326 votes, and Ledesma-Woody received 35.7% — a difference of fewer than 500 votes. The other candidates, Ofelia Maldonado Zapata and Gavino Fernandez Jr., did not advance to the runoff.
Morales spent nine years as the Precinct 4 constable before stepping down in October to run for commissioner. He had the endorsement of Gómez, who has a similar political history serving 15 years as a constable before her election to the Commissioners Court in 1995.
During the campaign, Morales said he will focus on expanding access to healthcare and mental health services, addressing displacement, promoting infrastructure and transit equity, and increasing budget accountability.
Ledesma-Woody is a project manager and has served for 14 years on the Del Valle school district's Board of Trustees. She has run for the seat three times in a row, coming within 219 votes of unseating Gómez in 2022.
Ledesma-Woody has said she will push for investment in infrastructure, food access and healthcare.
Following the general election in November, the new commissioner will take the oath of office early next year.
This is a developing story.