<![CDATA[The Irving Herald: Featured]]>https://irvingherald.com/s/featuredhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!L4Nd!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad93d123-b21d-424b-87ce-1fa5ee2cbf19_432x432.pngThe Irving Herald: Featuredhttps://irvingherald.com/s/featuredSubstackSun, 31 May 2026 20:49:27 GMT<![CDATA[Election Results]]>https://irvingherald.com/p/election-resultshttps://irvingherald.com/p/election-resultsSun, 03 May 2026 14:15:31 GMTThe results are in!

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It was an exciting night of watching returns last night. Congrats to all the candidates — y’all ran great races. We need good people to run.

Mayor

Not because of the mayor’s race though, which Al Zapanta won as expected. Zhanae Jackson was a surprise vote getter, netting 18% citywide and coming in second place.

In last year’s citywide race 11,054 ballots were cast, so this is a drop of 19%.

Congrats to our mayor elect, Al Zapanta!

District 5

This one was also not surprising, as councilman Mark Cronenwett was unopposed.

District 6 Special Election

The special election in District 6 to fill the last year of Al Zapanta’s term was tight, with Dana Collins giving Fahad Ahmed a run for his money.

If Ahmed had lost just 18 votes, this would have gone to a runoff.

We might see a rematch of this race in a year.

District 3

This one was thrilling. Tammam Alwan had the lead after early voting:

But then when election day results came in, incumbent councilman Abdul Khabeer passed him to take first place

As the night went on, it Kejal Patel was fading and it looked like she was not going to advance to the runoff:

…until the midnight drop, when she gained 104 votes and Alwan gained only 8:

Check out this Joe Biden-level late-night comeback:

No word year on whether Alwan will be requesting a recount. The deadline for that is 2:00pm Tuesday.

As the second-place finisher, Patel will now get the chance to unseat the incumbent Khabeer in the runoff election.

The runoff is Saturday, June 13 — early voting will run Monday, June 1 - Tuesday, June 9.

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Irving ISD School Board District 1

This district covers the area around University Park and Irving Heights:

Irving ISD School Board District 2

This district covers the area around Northgate and north of N. O’Connor:

DART Withdrawal Elections

Of the three referendums to leave DART only Highland Park voted to leave:

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© 2026 Irving Herald LLC. All rights reserved.

]]><![CDATA[Election Guide]]>https://irvingherald.com/p/election-guidehttps://irvingherald.com/p/election-guideFri, 01 May 2026 22:25:55 GMTElection Day is here!

We have recommendations here and below are all the interviews we did with the candidates.

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Mayor’s Race

Al Zapanta

Zhanae Jackson

Olivia Novelo Abreu

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District 3

Tammam Alwan

Abdul Khabeer

Kejal Patel

The only candidate who declined to be interviewed. This video about her candidacy is going viral.

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District 6 (Special Election)

Dana Collins

Fahad Ahmed

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Our overview of the election:

Note on this episode: District 6 candidate Dana Collins messaged us and clarified his views on an important issue, so we issued this clarification here.

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]]><![CDATA[May 2 Election Preview]]>https://irvingherald.com/p/may-2-election-previewhttps://irvingherald.com/p/may-2-election-previewSat, 25 Apr 2026 14:22:59 GMT

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]]><![CDATA[Irving Councilman Abdul Khabeer]]>https://irvingherald.com/p/irving-councilman-abdul-khabeerhttps://irvingherald.com/p/irving-councilman-abdul-khabeerFri, 24 Apr 2026 12:19:50 GMT

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]]><![CDATA[Interview with Al Zapanta]]>https://irvingherald.com/p/interview-with-al-zapantahttps://irvingherald.com/p/interview-with-al-zapantaSat, 18 Apr 2026 03:01:35 GMT

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]]><![CDATA[What happened in the March primary? ]]>https://irvingherald.com/p/what-happened-in-the-march-primaryhttps://irvingherald.com/p/what-happened-in-the-march-primaryWed, 15 Apr 2026 13:32:32 GMTWhat was the confusion with the March 3, 2026 primary election in Dallas County? This episode explains the decision of the Dallas County Republican Party to end countywide voting for election day as a vital election integrity measure, through an interview with two activists with long experience and expertise in elections in Texas.

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]]><![CDATA[Interview with Dana Collins]]>https://irvingherald.com/p/interview-with-dana-collinshttps://irvingherald.com/p/interview-with-dana-collinsSat, 04 Apr 2026 14:39:34 GMT

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]]><![CDATA[Reining In Short-Term Rentals]]>https://irvingherald.com/p/reining-in-short-term-rentalshttps://irvingherald.com/p/reining-in-short-term-rentalsThu, 02 Apr 2026 10:19:31 GMT


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]]><![CDATA[The DART Deal]]>https://irvingherald.com/p/the-dart-dealhttps://irvingherald.com/p/the-dart-dealMon, 09 Mar 2026 02:52:47 GMTIrving has signed onto the DART deal -- but what is in it? Bryan and Philip break it down, and talk a bit about the Dallas Country primary election results.

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]]><![CDATA[Data Centers]]>https://irvingherald.com/p/data-centershttps://irvingherald.com/p/data-centersTue, 24 Feb 2026 23:27:10 GMTCity Council approves a new data center. What will this mean for residents? Other communities are grappling with this question. In this interview, St. Joseph County Indiana Councilwoman Amy Drake speaks about what her constituents have been thinking about it.

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]]><![CDATA[Rideshares Eating DART's Lunch]]>https://irvingherald.com/p/rideshares-eating-darts-lunchhttps://irvingherald.com/p/rideshares-eating-darts-lunchSun, 01 Feb 2026 03:45:22 GMT

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]]><![CDATA[DART Pullout Election]]>https://irvingherald.com/p/dart-pullout-electionhttps://irvingherald.com/p/dart-pullout-electionSat, 20 Dec 2025 20:43:05 GMT

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This week’s episode brought to you by the Waterway Cafe:

Of note in the episode:

  • Dallas has control of the DART board, with 8 votes. It spends $420 million on DART and gets nearly $700 million in services.

  • Grapevine and Coppell are served by DART’s new Silver Line train, but they are not member cities. They get a la carte service. (Why can’t Irving get that?)

  • The Silver Line was originally pitched as costing around $1.3 billion, but costs have ballooned to $2 billion.

  • Taxes in Irving work out to $400 per citizen for DART and $75 per citizen for road repair.

  • Users of GoLink in Irving have to transfer if they go to a different zone. (Why can’t Irving be all one zone?)

  • Irving City Council voted 9-0 to hold an election to pull out of DART. This can only happen every six years. If it fails or the election is pulled, the next window for a withdrawal election is 2032.

At the end of the Dec. 11 work session, Mayor Stopfer listed demands we have of DART:

  1. Equal promotion for Irving events in regional marketing

  2. DART participating directly in our TIF District

  3. Governance reform

  4. DART to design and fund two remaining stations in Las Colinas (Texas Stadium and at Teleport Boulevard near SH 114)

  5. Money for a Circulator bus in the Urban Center to get people to the station

Bonus quote. At the end of the Dec. 11 work session, Mayor Stopfer asked the following:

“Who is DART and what is DART? Who owns it? Are we partners? Are the 13 cities partners in DART? Which means if it’s worth… $10 billion… then we should have some equity. If we’re just a cash cow who’s just paying and we’re not gaining anything in return, then we should have the same opportunity… to pick and choose our services and determine if we want it from DART or if we want it from somebody else.”

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