Lubbock Mayoral Candidate Dan Pope – Incumbent (Ballotpedia)
By Avery Dishaw
Elections for Lubbock County have come to an end with Mayor Dan Pope pulling ahead of challenger Stephen Sanders by 10,000 votes to serve a second term for the City of Lubbock.
Lubbock was expected to hold its mayoral elections in May 2020; however, the impact of COVID-19 changed the course of the election moving it to Nov. 3.
The candidates, Pope and Sanders, were both running as members of the Republican Party.
Gracie Gomez, Lubbock Democratic Chair, said “the mayoral race has been a little contentious,” but she is familiar with Pope’s policies.
“I’ve worked with Mayor Pope on different votes before,” Gomez said. “I feel like he’s fair.”
While Sanders has not previously served in local government, he ran for mayor in 2018 as a write-in candidate and chose to run again after conviction from God, he said.
“Twenty-twenty rolls back around and you know, here I am, waking up at 3 a.m. every single night,” Sanders said. “And God’s like, ‘You need to run, and you gotta be on the ballot this time.’”
Pope’s decision to run for re-election is because he enjoys serving his community, he said.
“I enjoy serving, I was raised by people who were very involved and taught the importance of giving back,” Pope said. “I ran for mayor because I got tired of people apologizing for Lubbock.”
Lubbock Mayoral Candidate Stephen Sanders (Ballotpedia)
Sanders said he loves the citizens of Lubbock and plans to put them first.
“I love each and every one of the citizens that are here,” Sanders said. “In my faith, I’ve been commissioned to do just that. Secondly, I’m gonna put the citizens first now.”
Pope said his case for re-election is based on “common sense leadership” and “fiscal discipline.”
“I plan on Nov. 4 to work on the same things I work on today,” Pope said. “We’ll stay the course.”
With the pandemic changing the way candidates reach voters, both men reached their constituents through social media in preparation for Election Day.
There were 70,824 early votes, 6,597 absentee, and 10,215 votes were cast on election day totaling 87,636 votes, according to Lubbock County.
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