Kate Gallego has won the Phoenix mayoral race.
Gallego, a Democrat, and her opponent Daniel Valenzuela are both former council members who gave up their seats to run for mayor of the fifth-largest U.S. city.
With results showing her up by at least 17 percentage points, Gallego declared victory before supporters at a downtown Phoenix restaurant.
Around 8:45 p.m., Valenzuela conceded the race, making Gallego the next mayor.
As of 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Gallego led Valenzuela by more than 27,000 votes, 92,816 (58.58%) to 65,624 (41.42%).
Gallego will finish the term of former Mayor Greg Stanton, a Democrat who was elected to Congress last November.
There are also two special elections to fill vacancies on the city council, one in District 5 and one in District 8.
TRACK LIVE ELECTION RESULTS HERE.
In those races, Betty Guardado leads in District 5 by more than 1,300 votes over Vania Guevara, 4,182 (37.19%) to 2,858 (25.41%). For District 8, Carlos Garcia held a more than 700-vote margin over Michael Johnson, 3,497 (28.66%) to 2,708 (22.19%).
For the council races, if no candidate receives 50 percent plus one vote, the top two candidates will head to a runoff election scheduled for May 21.
The results were current as of 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The city has so far counted more than 158,000 ballots cast before the election or on election day. Officials estimate 180,000 ballots were cast in the election overall, which would be the highest number ever for a city-run mayoral election.
Counting the remaining outstanding ballots is expected to take several days.
More details about the election are available on the City of Phoenix's election page. Este información también esta disponible en español: haz clic aquí.
