Voters re-elect mayor, three new Mansfield ISD trustees

By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

Mansfield voters chose to keep the mayor and an incumbent city council member, while replacing all three Mansfield ISD school board incumbents in the May 3 elections.

Mansfield Mayor Michael Evans won another three-year term, taking 6,318 votes (63.75 percent) to challenger and current city council member Julie Short’s 3,592 votes (36.25 percent). Evans, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, was first elected in December 2020 to fill the final two years of former mayor David Cook’s term after Cook was elected to the Texas House of Representatives. He was re-elected without opposition in May 2022.

Short, a Realtor, has served as the Place 5 council member since May 2018. A special election for a replacement for her position drew four candidates, leading to a run-off between Melisa Perez, a local restaurant owner, and Todd Simmons, a financial advisor.

In the special election, Perez earned 3,551 votes (37.64 percent) to Simmons’ 3,467 votes (36.75 percent). Candidates must earn at least 50 percent of the vote to be elected. Simmons and Perez will face off in a run-off election June 7. Lance Hood, a Lake Ridge High School administrator, took 1,573 votes (16.68 percent) and Eric Rozak, who owns Viridian Construction, took 842 votes (8.93 percent).

In the race for Place 2 on the city council, incumbent Tamera Bounds, who works in physical therapy, took 5,677 votes (59.70 percent) to challenger Lori Williams’ 3,832 votes (40.30 percent). Williams is CEO of the Mansfield Area Chamber of Commerce. Bounds was elected to the seat in 2020 to fill the unexpired term of Brent Newsom, who resigned to run for mayor against Evans.

The Mansfield ISD school board will have a new look, with three new members replacing three incumbents.

For Place 3, incumbent Craig Tipping, a physical therapist, was defeated by Jason Thomas, an operations director. Thomas took 7,940 votes (58.02 percent) to Tipping’s 5,501 votes (40.9 percent). Tipping was elected to the seat in 2022.

In the Place 4 seat, incumbent and school board president Keziah Valdes Farrar, a Realtor, was defeated by challenger Ana-Alicia Horn, a strategic development director. Horn earned 8,316  votes (60.3 percent) to Farrar’s 5,207 votes (38.5 percent). Farrar was elected to the position in 2021, completing the final year of Raul Gonzalez’s term. Gonzalez resigned after being elected to the Arlington City Council. Farrar was re-elected in 2022.

Place 5 incumbent Bianca Benavides Anderson, who is in sales/marketing, was defeated by challenger Jesse Cannon II, an educator. Cannon took 7,980 votes (58.6 percent), while Anderson had 5,354 votes (40.2 percent).

All results are unofficial until canvassed by the school board and city council.