Travis Griffith Defeats Mike Hernandez to Become Next Police Chief

 

SAN ANGELO, TX — The long-fought battle to become San Angelo’s next police chief ended in victory for Travis Griffith on Saturday night. He defeated Mike Hernandez soundly in the runoff election, which resulted from the May 4 election where Hernandez missed winning outright by just 35 votes.

Griffith improved his performance in in-person early voting, where in the May 4 election Hernandez won with 53.22% of the vote. For the runoff, Griffith defeated Hernandez in in-person early votes, 51.89% to 48.11%, almost flipping the script on Hernandez. There were 4,745 early voters, up from 3,277 early votes cast on May 4. Griffith increased his election day winning margin from 52.90% on May 4 to 56.53% for the runoff. There were 203 additional voters on runoff election day.

An interesting statistic not reported elsewhere is that the number of eligible voters increased significantly since May 4. On May 4, the elections office reported 53,495 eligible voters in the city. Today, the elections office reported 56,262, up 2,767 new voters in just six weeks.

The May 4 election saw 6,639 voters; runoff participation increased to 8,378, an increase of 1,739 voters.

The election results are unofficial until the San Angelo City Council canvasses the results in about two weeks. Until then, the elections office will need to resolve provisional ballots before releasing a final tally.

How did Griffith win? We outlined part of his strategy in the Police Chief Chronicles: How Mike Hernandez Loses.

Travis Griffith campaign workers at the TxDOT voting center on Knickerbocker Road.

Travis Griffith campaign workers at the TxDOT voting center on Knickerbocker Road.

Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily

The LIVE! Daily is the "newspaper to your email" for San Angelo. Each content-packed edition has weather, the popular Top of the Email opinion and rumor mill column, news around the state of Texas, news around west Texas, the latest news stories from San Angelo LIVE!, events, and the most recent obituaries. The bottom of the email contains the most recent rants and comments. The LIVE! daily is emailed 5 days per week. On Sundays, subscribers receive the West Texas Real Estate LIVE! email.

Required

Most Recent Videos

Comments

No... No, no. Not before the hotdog eating contest. Most important law enforcement skill is being able to pack away enough fat franks to feed a stadium. Always has been.

I've never been so happy to see the results of an election in my life. Screw Mike Hernandez, sincerely!

Yeah? Well we don't know which cop is better until we know which one can take more glizzies through the pie hole. Bet Griffith won't do it...

*bawk bawk* 🐔 

Racist comments like that are going to upset the Filipino community unnecessarily. Spork's flaws are his own.

Rita,

Your hot dog eating contest was the most newsworthy comment on San Angelo Live concerning the outcome of the Chief of Police election.  Maybe Joe would allow a segment, authored by the public, on why and who influenced the outcome of the election. It will take many months of the healing process before Joe will be able to shave or Travis is able to comment on San Angelo Live.

Post a comment to this article here: