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Voters in McAllen, Texas, selected the chairman of the Hidalgo County Republican Party as their next mayor.
Preliminary election results indicate Javier Villalobos, who currently serves as a city commissioner, won 51.11% of the vote in his runoff election against Veronica Whitacre. Votes will be canvassed and certified by city officials on June 14.
"Let me start by thanking the voters, my team, my family [and] everyone who helped run this campaign,” Villalobos wrote on Facebook after his victory. “Thank you McAllen for trusting [and] believing in me. I promise to not let you down."
The election results point to a wider pattern of incremental successes for Republicans in South Texas, a heavily Hispanic region that has been politically dominated by Democrats for decades.