Former city councilman and mayor pro-tem Bill Cox won a runoff for McKinney mayor Saturday against Scott Sanford, a former state lawmaker and church pastor.
Cox won the race by about six points, or about 1,200 votes. Both candidates expected between 15,000 and 20,000 voters to turn out and vote, but slightly more than that cast ballots in the race.
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WATCH HERECox campaigned saying he was supportive of expanding the city's airport, despite voters rejecting a bond package to pay for it in May. He said his competitor supported laws that held the city back, including those that required providing services to homes outside the city limits.
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SIGN UP Sanford said the city was at a crossroads and that current leadership has been too focused on development. He opposes the expansion of the airport and wants to slow down the construction of apartments in the city. Sanford stands behind the votes he took in the legislature and believes his relationships in Austin will help the city.
“Who better than somebody who knows Austin, who spent 10 years there? Who has a relationship with the governor and the senators and the representatives than myself? If we need to make any tweaks to communicate that with our legislators," Sanford said.
Many former colleagues, including the governor and the county judge, support Sanford. Cox, meanwhile, is endorsed by the outgoing mayor, George Fuller, and most of the city council, members of the school board and the realtors association.
"This is not the legislature. This is people here in McKinney. This is where you vote on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, you see those same people in the grocery store and they ask you, 'Why did you vote like that?" Cox told NBC 5.
In May, Cox advanced to the runoff with 47% of the vote to Sanford's 41%.
