CEDAR CREEK LAKE-Gun Barrel City Mayor Brian Crull overcame a challenge from community activist Amaris Faith to win that city's May 2 mayoral election, taking 68% of the vote in the process.
According to the Henderson County Elections Administration's posting of final unofficial results from May 2 local elections, Crull took 277 of the 407 ballots cast to win election to his second term as Gun Barrel City mayor. The 2025-26 election cycle marks the transition of Gun Barrel City's council members and its mayor serving three-year terms going forward instead of the previous standard of having two-year terms, as per a May 2024 voter-approved amendment to the city charter.
Also in Gun Barrel City, the Place 2 council position serving Gun Barrel East was won by Doug Lander, who won 66-45 over Chris Bayhi. That Place 2 position was formerly held by Rita Evans, who retired from office after serving three two-year terms.
As for the Place 4 council seat (serving Gun Barrel West), Matthew Proper got 251 votes while running unopposed for the seat formerly held by Jay Burson, who resigned Oct. 6 from his first term as a council member, with Brian Henson appointed Oct. 20 to fill out Burson's unexpired term.
In Seven Points, Mayor Keith Betts was defeated by former Seven Points Police Chief Raymond Wennerstrom, who won by 19 votes of the 189 cast (104-85). In addition, with two council seats up for election, Seven Points voters selected LaJohnna Wells and Valeria Bahm, who received 94 and 93 votes, respectively, of the 378 votes cast in the contest. Bahm and Wells are both incumbents, with Bahm currently serving as Seven Points mayor pro tem. Paul Session and John McDonald also ran for election on Seven Points City Council, with Sessions getting 84 votes and McDonald garnering 73 votes.
In Eustace, incumbent council members Chuck Powers (Eustace's mayor pro tem who got 40 votes), Travis Guthrie (38 votes) and Randy Johnson (29 votes) were selected for more terms in office. Crystal Johnson, a Eustace challenger, received 25 votes.
In Caney City, Heather Dunton (and incumbent with 22 votes) and Rick Norman (a challenger with 20 votes) were elected for two of the three open council spots. The third open spot ended up being a tie with 10 votes apiece for incumbent council members Dandria Moore and Dan Wright. The question of how to address that tie has been asked of the Henderson County Elections Administration office in Athens, said Caney City's city secretary, Blake Box.
Caney City voters also approved a proposition to reauthorize that town's quarter-cent local sales and use tax to fund the maintenance and repair of municipal streets. The City of Payne Springs also presented propositions to its voters, with two such measures receiving near-unanimous support: Proposition A (approved 29-5), which authorized issuing bonds of $1,900,000 for the purpose of refunding all or a portion of the principal, interest, and redemption premium on previously issued tax note debt of the city dated Nov. 1, 2022, that went toward citywide road repair; as well as Proposition B (approved 30-5), which also deals with reauthorizing Payne Springs' quarter-cent local sales and use tax to continue to provide funding for street repair and maintenance.
Also, for the City of Kerens, Navarro County Elections Administration posted its unofficial results, which shows newcomer Lance Kamp (115 votes out of 386 ballots cast), incumbent Lance Horner (89 votes) and another council newcomer, Sue Kasemeyer (with 65 votes), winning the three open council slots. That trio defeated two other challengers, Briar Greene and Jennifer Combs, while former council member Ann Fessenden got 212 write-in votes. Kerens voters also reauthorized (via proposition) the city's quarter-cent sales tax portion for road repairs and maintenance.