Mitchell wins mayor’s race without runoff; Ellison, Villalobos take council seats

Updated at 9 p.m.

First-term city council member Travis Mitchell cruised to a commanding victory in a four-person race for Kyle mayor tonight in an election that also saw Planning & Zoning Commission Chairman Dex Ellison and police officer Alex Villalobos win seats on the council.

With 11 of 14 precincts or 78.57 percent of the vote counted, Mitchell captured 60.36 percent of the vote, forcing The Kyle Report to call the election for Mitchell. Perennial candidate Bill Sinor was second with 18.7 percent, Jaime Sanchez third with 11.64 percent and Nicole Romero-Piche fourth with 9.31 percent.

"I am very grateful to receive this degree of support," Mitchell said, "and now I’m going to try to repay that support by working as hard as I can everyday as mayor to make us stronger as a city. I want to congratulate my opponents on their campaigns. They, and all the candidates in this election, were striving to make Kyle a better place for all of us."

Villalobos, who was only ahead of his District 4 opponent Tim McHutchion by 11 votes after the early voting, won handily, capturing 62.5 percent of the votes cast today to win by a margin of almost 13 percent. With complete returns in that race counted, Villalobos took 56.37 percent of the votes cast in the race to succeed David Wilson.

The results are also incomplete in the District 1 special election race called to complete the two years remaining on Mitchell’s term but with almost 79 percent of the vote counted, The Kyle Report is declaring Ellison the winner with 54.35 percent of the vote. compared to Marco Pizana's 45.65 percent.

I’ve left messages with Villalobos and Ellison seeking their reactions to the outcome.

Posted at 8 p.m. First-term city council member Travis Mitchell took a commanding lead in early voting results tonight and appeared to be cruising towards an outright victory in the four-person race for Kyle mayor.

Mitchell captured an overwhelming 61.47 percent of the 859 total absentee and early votes counted, compared to 17.81 percent for Bill Sinor, 11.87 percent for Jaime Sanchez and 8.85 percent for Nicole Romero-Piche

Of the three city council seats up for grabs, the closest race was in District 4 where Alex Villalobos had an 11-vote lead over Tim McHutchion in early voting. In the District 1 special election, Dex Ellison had 54.67 percent of the vote over Marco Pizana. Tracy Sheel was unopposed in the race to succeed Becky Selbera in District 2.

Mitchell was the overwhelming favorite in the mayor’s race. The only question was whether he could avoid a runoff with four candidates in the race.

"The numbers are better than I anticipated," an obviously delighted Mitchell said at his watch party right after the early results were posted. "I’m just really happy to see the results come in as favorably as they did."