Tucson City Councilman Kevin Dahl says he's excited about returning for a second term "doing this work, which I love so much," and joining forces with two new Democratic colleagues.
Dahl's easy victory Tuesday — he took 68% of the votes to Republican Janet “JL” Wittenbraker's 32% in early returns— combined with the two newcomers' wins means the city will retain an all-Democratic City Council.
He'll be joined by Miranda Schubert from Ward 6, who won by a wide margin, and Ward 5's Selina Barajas, who was unopposed in Tuesday's election. Democratic incumbents Mayor Regina Romero and council members Paul Cunningham, Lane Santa Cruz and Nikki Lee weren't up for reelection Tuesday but will be in 2027.
¾ٳ46,823votes, Dahl was leading by24,507, a margin of more votes than Wittenbraker's total of22,316.
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“Sixty-seven percent is pretty strong with probably 72,000 votes in; we expect 100,000 total. So that can't be changed I'm very excited," Dahl said Tuesday evening.
Councilman Kevin Dahl looks at out-of-state election results Tuesday evening while awaiting local returns in his reelection bid for Tucson's Ward 3.
This will be Dahl's second four-year term representing Ward 3, which encompasses parts of midtown and the northwest side.
"I'm so excited that we saw record turnout and also an overwhelming win for Kevin Dahl, who spoke about the environment and the importance of investing in our environment and protecting it," said U.S.-Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, the Tucson Democrat who is still waiting for the Republican House speaker to seat her in Congress after she won a special election in September.
Dahl's big margin Tuesday comes after he got a scare in the August Democratic primary, winning the party's nomination by just 19 votes. The race against Sadie Shaw was so close it triggered an automatic recount and a challenge of the election results.
Wittenbraker, who fell short Tuesday as she did in her run last year for a seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors and before that in a race for Tucson mayor, said she has no regrets and is proud of encouraging new voter registrations.
Tucson council members are nominated by wards in primary elections and then chosen citywide by voters in the November general elections. There are 127,899 registered Democrats in the city, 66,313 Republicans and 107,333 independents.
Janet "JL" Wittenbraker, Republican candidate running for Tucson's Ward 3 seat against incumbent Kevin Dahl, speaks with reporters during her Election Night watch party Tuesday at The Maverick, 6622 E. Tanque Verde Road.
Dahl, a longtime conservationist who led the environmentalist groups Tucson Audubon Society and Native Seeds/SEARCH, was first elected by city voters in 2021 to represent Ward 3. He has said he hoped his experience in office would be at the top of voters' minds in Tuesday's election.
He ran on working to address climate change in his first campaign for City Council, a platform he says voters responded to then and are responding to now.
He has also touted his role in the council's unanimous vote this August to kill any Tucson role in Project Blue, the controversial and long-secretive proposal to build a complex of data centers. ٲpushed for the council vote, saying at the time, “This thing needs to die now so we can move on with appropriate conversations about what economic development looks like in the midst of extreme heat and depleting water supplies.”
At his Election Night party Tuesday, Dahl thanked his staff, campaign workers, volunteers and voters, and said he is grateful that he, Barajas and Schubert all won. "I'm grateful that I'm a Democrat surrounded by Democrats," he said.
“You're lucky at this point in life to be living in this blueberry we call Tucson, the home we love so much," Dahl told supporters, referring to Tucson being a "blue" Democratic Party stronghold.
“We have to defeat the monster in the White House," he said.
Dahl's Republican challenger
Businesswoman Wittenbraker's prioritieslistwas topped by public safety. The largest barrier to improving Tucson's public safety is inadequate staffing numbers in the police, fire and 9-1-1 departments, she has said.
She said she would call for city budget cuts, such as cutting back trash pickups to every two weeks, like recyclables, in order to find more money to better fund public safety.
She also campaigned on lobbying the state Legislature to reclassify fentanyl as a Schedule 1 drug, so fentanyl possession could be charged as a federal offense.
In Wittenbraker's eyes, opposite to Dahl's views, Tucson’s crime “seems to be directly linked” to the city’s continued push for fare-free transit service.
Her political career started in 2023 when she ran for Tucson mayor, receiving nearly 32% of the vote.Last November, Wittenbraker ran for the District 3 seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors, earning 43%of the votes in athree-candidate racein which Democrat Jen Allen was elected.
At her Election Night watch party Tuesday night, Wittenbraker, speaking before the first vote tallies were announced, attributed Republican losses in Tucson city elections largely to low voter turnout.
"if you as a voter are not turning out for your election, you lose your voice, irrespective of party affiliation," she said.
But, she added, "This election, despite some of the challenges, we are seeing an increase in voter turnout. That's my ultimate goal."
Wittenbraker said she was most proud of getting people registered, including a 75-year-old man registered right before the cut-off date who had never voted before.
She said she'll "never say never" to running for another office, and that she believes a lot of times, unqualified people get into office because no one else runs.
"How many times have we had unopposed candidates? How many times have we had under-qualified candidates? Because they were the one, they were the one that said, 'Okay, I guess I'll do it.' We need candidates if we want diversity of thought," she said. "One of my goals is to recruit good, solid candidates that recognize that they can contribute."
