Herring, Hughes and McKinney sweep aside competition for Kerrville City Council

Bolstered by the strong early voting turnout, Kerrville City Council candidates Joe Herring Jr., Brenda Hughes and Kent McKinney swept to convincing victories on Saturday night. 

Herring Jr. easily cast aside a challenge from Roman Garcia to become the city’s next mayor — nearly 30 years after his first stint as mayor. Despite Garcia’s huge campaign finance boosts by Sandy Cailloux, Herring built an insurmountable lead with absentee and early voters. 

The same was true for Hughes, who won her third consecutive campaign, and for political newcomer Kent McKinney. Running as a slate, the trio faced withering attacks from campaign surrogates — most notably, We The People Liberty In Action. 

In 2023, Barbara Dewell Ferguson lost to Jeff Harris by three votes, and she was determined to gain a seat on the City Council. Initially, she sought the Place 3 seat held by Herring, but when McKinney filed to run, Dewell Ferguson switched to run against Hughes — the move backfired. 

We The People Liberty In Action attacked Hughes for slamming books on the council dais, including a copy of the Bible, in response to her support of the Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library staff. We The People Liberty In Action then attacked Hughes and Herring with a series of false and misleading attacks, including the false claim that Hughes and Herring voted to raise taxes. 

However, the voters rejected the hardline narrative. As early voting returns came in, Herring and Hughes had leads similar to their last two campaigns — 60% or better share of the votes. Facing Brent Bates, McKinney dominated and built an insurmountable lead before Saturday’s election. 

The election drew more than 4,500 voters—or about 26% of the city’s electorate—but it also showed the limitations of far-right groups in municipal elections. Garcia and Dewell Ferguson needed to outperform their 2023 performances, but they were essentially flat. 

Garcia will now vacate his seat on the City Council, which will appoint a replacement to fill Garcia’s final year of service. Herring will take over from Mayor Judy Eychner on May 14. 

Bates, who did little campaigning and raised $600, was a non-factor in the election but did manage to attract more than 1,000 voters. 

The voters approved sevent of 10 propositions to make amendments to the city’s charter.