Austin Mayor Kirk Watson celebrates a narrow election victory, securing another term with just over 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff.

The ballot counts released Thursday show Watson winning the five-way race outright by about a dozen votes. The outcome of the mayoral race has been unclear since the Nov. 5 election, when unofficial final vote totals showed Watson had garnered 50.

AUSTIN - Five candidates battled it out for the position of Austin mayor. The incumbent, Kirk Watson, has been re-elected to the seat. Watson was mayor of Austin from 1997 until 2001. He then spent 13 years working in the Texas Senate.

Watson won the runoff in December 2022 and was sworn in as mayor of Austin for a second time on Jan. 6, 2023.

Kirk Watson has declared victory in Austin’s mayoral race following the count of outstanding votes in Travis and Williamson counties this week. The incumbent appears to have won the election outright, avoiding a runoff in the five-way race, by less than two dozen votes.

Kirk Watson has officially won a new term as Austin's next mayor. Watson led his four challengers on Nov. 5, but did not have enough to claim victory outright. He had to win a majority of the vote, or 50% plus one vote, to secure a new term.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson declared victory on his social media pages on Thursday, November 14 after the last batch of unofficial ballot tallies were released.

More than a week after Election Day, all Travis County ballots have been unofficially tallied and they're enough for KXAN to call the Austin mayoral race. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson has more than 50% of the vote and is projected to win outright.

Mayor Kirk Watson is defending his seat against four opponents. He needs to earn 50% of the vote, plus one vote, to avoid a runoff election in December.