El Paso, Texas, held a first round of general elections on May 6, 2017, to elect the mayor and city council. The runoff election took place on June 10, 2017. Incumbent mayor Oscar Leeser was eligible for another term, but announced in July 2016 that he would not seek another term. Leeser had a cancer-related surgery in 2016, but stated that his decision was not because of his health. Instead, it was because he "ran to do things I thought were really important for our community and I did that."
The election was non-partisan; therefore, there was no primary election. However, if no candidate had won a majority, there would have been a runoff election.
The mayor and council members elected in 2017 were to serve through December 2020. The term was shortened because of a charter amendment to move city elections from May in odd-numbered years to November in even-numbered years.
Dee Margo took first place in the mayoral race, but did not win a majority of votes, so he and David Saucedo competed in a runoff election. Margo defeated Saucedo in the runoff. 8.57% of registered voters voted in the runoff election, one of the lowest turnouts in the city's history.
Districts 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8 had elections in 2017. District 2 incumbent, Jim Tolbert, and District 7 incumbent, Lilia Limon, were eligible for re-election, but were defeated by Alexansandra Annello and Henry Rivera, respectively. Emma Acosta, District 3 incumbent, and Carl Robinson, District 4 incumbent, were term limited and could not run again; they were succeeded by Cassandra Hernandez and Sam Morgan, respectively. District 8 representative Cortney Niland, whose term was supposed to end in December 2018, resigned in April 2017. The city scheduled a June special election and July runoff election to fill the remainder of her term. The runoff election was won by Cissy Lizarraga.
Campaign websites