November city and county election data review: Fresh faces from mayoral races

November 11, 2016
By the Municipal Government Team

See also: United States municipal elections, 2016 and Election results, 2016

On November 8, 2016, 33 of America's largest 100 cities by population held elections. Ballotpedia also covered elections in 12 large counties across the United States. Across those 45 municipalities, there were 287 positions up for election. Incumbents ran in 195 (67.9 percent) of those races, and 24 (12.3 percent) were defeated in their re-election bids. To read our review of the most interesting races, click here.

Click on the tabs below to view statistics and more information about city, county, and local ballot measure results from Tuesday night.

Cities

Across the largest 100 cities by population, 33 cities held elections for mayor or city council. A total of 158 positions were up for election, and incumbents ran in 108 (68.4 percent) of those races. Fifteen incumbents (13.9 percent) lost their re-election bids.

Incumbents Running

Incumbents Defeated

Note: The figures do not reflect a race in Portland, Oregon. In Portland, results are not yet available because all ballots are done by mail.

Mayoral partisanship

See also: Partisanship in United States mayoral elections (2016)

Of the 14 mayoral positions up for grabs, six were held by Republicans and seven were held by Democrats. The last position was held by a mayor of unknown political affiliation. Following the election, those 14 seats will be held by seven Republicans and seven Democrats.

Notable results

See also: Ballotpedia's review of the results for November's top municipal races

• In Corpus Christi, Texas, Mayor Nelda Martinez (D) was defeated in her re-election bid by challenger Dan McQueen (R). Martinez had held the post since 2012 and had served as an at-large city council member before that. Martinez was one of the few Democratic officeholders in a city and county that had turned increasingly Republican. Nueces County, of which Corpus Christi is the seat, had a history of voting for Republican presidents. Additionally, the county makes up a part of Texas' 27th Congressional District, which has been held by Blake Farenthold (R) since 2010.

• In San Francisco, California, the Board of Supervisors will have a new 6-5 moderate majority. Although the board is made up entirely of Democrats, it is divided into progressive and moderate factions. With the election of Aaron Peskin (progressive) in 2015, progressives gained a 6-5 majority. In 2016, three progressive members of the board were term-limited and could not run for re-election. Progressives only won two of those seats, with the third going to a candidate identified as a moderate.

• Voters in Fremont, California, ousted incumbent Mayor Bill Harrison (D) in favor of Lily Mei (D). Harrison had been mayor since 2012 and served on the council from 2006 to 2012. Mei, the mayor-elect, was elected to the council in 2014. She had previously served on the Fremont Unified School Board from 2008 to 2014. Mei will be the first female and Asian-American mayor in the city's history. Mei told the East Bay Times following her win that her priorities are schools, roads, traffic, and development.

Counties

Ballotpedia provided coverage of 12 large counties with elections in 2016. A total of 129 county official and special district offices were up for election, and incumbents ran in 87 (67.4 percent) of those races. Nine incumbents (10.3 percent) lost their re-election bids.

Incumbents Running

Incumbents Defeated

Notable results

See also: Ballotpedia's review of the results for November's top municipal races

• All three countywide offices held by Republicans in Harris County, Texas, were won by Democrats on Tuesday night. Each race had a Republican incumbent running for re-election. Kim Ogg (D) won the race for district attorney, Ed Gonzalez (D) is the sheriff-elect, and Ann Harris Bennett (D) will be the county’s new tax assessor-collector. The other countywide office, county attorney, was retained by incumbent Vince Ryan (D). The largest margin of victory was in the sheriff's race, where Ogg defeated Devon Anderson by 9 percentage points.

• In Travis County, Texas, Sally Hernandez (D) defeated Joe Martinez (R), Libertarian candidate Eric Guerra, and Green Party candidate Debbie Russell in the race for county sheriff. Sheriff Greg Hamilton (D) chose to retire rather than run for re-election. Immigration and cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security took center stage in this race. Hernandez vowed to change the county's policy on immigration, while Martinez ran on keeping the status quo.

• The Zika virus, transportation, and transit expansion were the main talking points in the race for mayor of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Incumbent Carlos Gimenez (R) defeated Raquel Regalado (R), a county school board member and the daughter of Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado. Though the race is officially nonpartisan, both candidates identified as Republican. This was only the third mayoral race to require a runoff in the last 20 years. Gimenez outraised Regalado $4.5 million to $983,000 through the August primary and $6.5 million to $1.5 million through October 2016.

Statistics by county

County Elections on November 8, 2016
County	Seats Up	Incumbents Running	Incumbents Defeated
Bernalillo County, New Mexico	6	3	0
Clark County, Nevada	4	4	0
Cook County, Illinois	9	6	0
Harris County, Texas	24	16	3
Los Angeles County, California	8	6	0
Maricopa County, Arizona	36	29	5
Miami-Dade County, Florida	2	2	0
Orange County, California	7	6	0
Sacramento County, California	5	1	1
San Diego County, California	3	3	0
Travis County, Texas	15	6	0
Williamson County, Texas	10	5	0
TOTAL	129	87	9

Ballot measures

Ballotpedia provided coverage of 12 large counties with elections in 2016. A total of 168 local measures were on the ballot in those counties. Voters approved 127 (75.6 percent) of those measures, while 18 (10.7 percent) were defeated at the polls. Ballotpedia is waiting to call 23 (13.7 percent) other measures in these counties until results are certified since the margin of approval or defeat is very narrow.

Local Ballot Measures

Notable results

See also: Ballotpedia's review of the results for November's top municipal races

• Voters in Los Angeles, California, approved Measure JJJ, an affordable housing and labor standards initiative. The initiative will impose minimum affordable housing requirements, training standards, and labor and wage regulations on development projects requiring zoning changes, including provisions to require that a certain percentage of labor come from local workers. A competing measure, known as the "Neighborhood Integrity" Initiative, was originally scheduled to be on the ballot as well but was delayed until March 2017.

• The Houston Independent School District will be required to pay the state education board through the recapture process after voters defeated Proposition 1. Proposition 1 would have allowed the district to buy "attendance credits" from the state, rather than having to go through recapture. In recapture, the Texas Commissioner of Education is granted the power to take commercial property away from the school district and assign it to another district. The new district is then allowed to collect taxes on that property.
  • A formula is used by the state based on property value and student attendance to determine each district's equalized wealth level. Because of rising property values, the ratio of property value to average daily attendance in the Houston Independent School District was higher than the maximum set by state law, which means the school district must pay money to the state in order to help fund districts with a lower ratio.

• Residents of San Diego, California, voted to reject a pair of ballot measures meant to allow the city to keep its National Football League franchise, the San Diego Chargers. Measure C would have increased the city’s hotel occupancy tax by an additional 6 percent to fund the construction of a city-owned downtown professional football stadium. Measure D would have increased the city’s hotel occupancy tax by up to an additional 5 percent and allowed Qualcomm Stadium property, if vacated, to be sold for educational and park uses. The San Diego Chargers have until January 2017 to decide if they will move to Los Angeles for the 2019 season.

Statistics by county

Ballot Measure Elections on November 8, 2016
County	Ballot Measures	Approved a	Too Close To Call	Defeated d
Bernalillo County, New Mexico	10	10	0	0
Clark County, Nevada	1	1	0	0
Cook County, Illinois	10	8	0	2
Harris County, Texas	2	1	0	1
Los Angeles County, California	59	51	5	3
Maricopa County, Arizona	0	0	0	0
Miami-Dade County, Florida	6	6	0	0
Orange County, California	33	21	5	7
Sacramento County, California	11	6	5	0
San Diego County, California	35	22	8	5
Travis County, Texas	1	1	0	0
Williamson County, Texas	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	168	127	23	18

See also

Local Politics	2016 Election Analysis
Municipal government Local courts School boards Local ballot measures Local recalls	Municipal elections, 2016 Local court elections, 2016 School board elections, 2016 Local ballot measure elections, 2016 Political recall efforts, 2016	Local: Partisanship in local elections Local: Money in local elections Local: Preemption conflicts between state and local governments Municipal: Partisanship in United States mayoral elections Municipal: Race, law enforcement, and the ballot box School boards: Education policy at the state and local levels Local ballots: Using local measures to advance national agendas