Uvalde mayor's election: Cody Smith defeats mom of slain Robb Elementary student

In a widely followed race, Uvalde voters overwhelmingly elected former Mayor Cody Smith to the city's highest elected office Tuesday over Kimberly Mata-Rubio, a gun control advocate and mom of a slain Robb Elementary student, according to the unofficial results.

Smith won 65% support compared with Mata-Rubio's 32%. The landslide victory confirms once again that the mass shooting did not substantially alter the majority-Republican, majority-Latino county's political leanings, despite some Robb Elementary School shooting victims' families, including Mata-Rubio, advocating for stricter gun control policies at the national and state levels.

Six months after the mass shooting, the county voted overwhelmingly in the 2022 midterm election for Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who all year has resisted calls for increased gun control.

It also shows that national politics — and national donors — had little sway in the race. Mata-Rubio raised more than $80,000 in campaign contributions from donors across the country by Oct. 10, $55,000 more than Smith had received by that date, according to finance reports. Smith's campaign was largely financed by donors in Uvalde, campaign finance filings show.

Elementary school art teacher Veronica Martinez came in third place with just under 2% of the vote.

Smith will succeed Don McLaughlin, a Republican whose 10 years in office included leading the community through the devastating mass shooting at Robb Elementary, where 19 students and two teachers were killed May 24, 2022. McLaughlin announced in July that he was stepping down to run for the Texas House.

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Smith had served as Uvalde’s mayor from 2008 to 2012 and is currently a senior vice president at the First State Bank of Uvalde.

"I want to see Uvalde continue to grow and prosper," Smith told the Uvalde Leader-News in July.

Mata-Rubio — who received national media attention for advocating stricter gun control policies after her 10-year-old daughter Lexi was killed in the mass shooting — received support from several of the shooting victims' families, including Brett Cross, whose son Uziyah "Uzi" Garcia also died in the shooting.

"Don't be okay with policies that are in place set forth by politicians who don’t care about you or your kids," Cross urged his followers on X, formerly Twitter, before the polls closed Tuesday. "Because before you know it, you will be in my shoes. Fighting for everyone else’s kids while yours is in an urn in your living room."

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Mata-Rubio congratulated Smith with a warm embrace Tuesday night, video posted to X by News 4 Fox San Antonio reporter Amanda Henderson shows. In a statement on X, Mata-Rubio promised to continue her work in honor of her late daughter's legacy.

"I’ll never stop fighting for you, Lexi," she wrote. "I meant it when I said this was only the beginning. After all, I’m not a regular mom. I’m Lexi’s mom."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Mom of slain Robb Elementary student defeated in Uvalde mayor election