PHOENIX — Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego may earn a second term in office with an election win on Tuesday night.
As of early Wednesday morning, Gallego was in the lead with 63%.
Gallego faces a challenge from two candidates, Merissa Hamilton and Tim Seay.
While the mayor's race is a non-partisan contest, both Gallego and Seay are Democrats while Hamilton is Republican.
It is an important one to watch since the city council has been trending towards the left over the last several years.
Gallego was elected in 2019 by voters to fill the office left vacant when U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton resigned to run for Congress.
Prior to that, she served on Phoenix City Council from 2014 until 2018.
She has faced some opposition after voting to increase funding of the Phoenix Police oversight budget while also voting to increase the overall police budget.
Merissa Hamilton was chair of the Arizona Legislature sub-committee on Policing. She led a statewide community policing reform model with the Police Departments of Tucson, Tempe, and Goodyear. She ran as a Libertarian write-in candidate for U.S. Senate in 2016.
Tim Seay is a Phoenix community leader and wants to build better relations between citizens and the police department.