Mercedes Mayor Joel Quintanilla is claiming victory in the race for Hidalgo County Pct. 1 Commissioner.
As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, Quintanilla received 54 percent of the vote while write-in candidate A.C. Cuellar had 46 percent of the vote.
Cuellar had been appointed to replace former Commissioner Sylvia Handy, who had been sentenced in a federal tax evasion and harboring illegal immigrants case.
But Quintanilla won the Democratic Party's nomination to replace Handy prompting a legal battle that Cuellar lost.
Quintanilla told Action 4 News that he's looking forward to getting to work and restoring integrity to the office.