Gina Ortiz Jones and Rolando Pablos are running in the June 7, 2025, runoff election for mayor of San Antonio, Texas.
Ortiz Jones and Pablos advanced to the runoff from the nonpartisan general election on May 3. Ortiz Jones received 27.2% of the vote and Pablos received 16.6%. The two advanced to a runoff because neither received at least 50% of the vote.
Incumbent Ron Nirenberg, elected in June 2017, is term-limited. Though the office is nonpartisan, Nirenberg joined the Democratic Party in 2024 and was previously an independent. This is the city’s first mayoral election in 16 years without an incumbent on the ballot.
The San Antonio Report’s Andrea Drusch wrote, “The race to become San Antonio’s next mayor is headed toward a partisan showdown between one candidate loved by national Democratic Party leaders [Ortiz Jones] and another [Pablos] who has close ties to the Republicans who control every lever of power in Texas state government. … Texas’ big city mayors have steadily become less progressive as traditional liberal incumbents termed out, and all eyes will be on San Antonio as Jones and Pablos face off in what is supposed to be a nonpartisan race.” The runoff election does not feature any city council candidates. Drusch wrote, “Historically, San Antonio has shown preference for candidates with council experience. The city has elected just one mayor without it in 70 years — Phil Hardberger — making the dominance of City Hall outsiders in this race highly unusual.”
Notable endorsements for Ortiz Jones include: former mayors Phil Hardberger and Julian Castro; congressmen Greg Casar (D) and Joaquin Castro (D); councilmembers Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, Phyllis Viagran, and Teri Castillo; and the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations.
The San Antonio Police Officers’ Association, former U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R), and Gov. Greg Abbott (R)-affiliated PAC, The Texas Economic Fund, endorsed Pablos.
Ortiz Jones served as undersecretary of the Air Force (2021-2024) in the Biden administration. She said she will focus on working families and young people, and will “work to bring down costs where we can, make smart investments in our future, and respect taxpayers by increasing transparency around how tax dollars are spent.” Pablos served as Texas secretary of state from 2017 to 2018. He said his priorities are public safety, better-paying jobs, small businesses, government accountability, and basic city services such as affordable utilities, walkable neighborhoods, and enhanced drainage systems and garbage collection.
Heading into the May 3 election, the San Antonio Report’s Leigh Munsil said the new mayor and city council would need to navigate “multiple city-shaping economic development efforts like a downtown stadium for the Missions baseball team and a possible relocation of the Spurs to Hemisfair … [as well as] challenges of housing affordability, public safety and infrastructure, to name a few.”
San Antonio, which is the seventh most populous city in the country as of May 2025, has a council-manager system, meaning the mayor represents one of 11 votes on the city council. The mayor and city council appoint a chief executive called a city manager to oversee day-to-day municipal operations and implement the council’s policy and legislative initiatives.