Athena Aguiar, a newcomer to elected office, is ahead of 20-year incumbent Mike Clark in the race to represent Ward 5 on the Eugene City Council.
Aguiar, who has not held elected office before, leads Clark 57.76% to 42.23% in early results posted 8:00 pm on election night.
Aguiar’s campaign attempted to paint Clark as being unresponsive to voters, while Clark focused on portraying himself as an independent voice on the council who helps bring ideas that fall outside of the norm for council members.
Both focused heavily on concerns around how to increase housing stock and control affordability issues.
Aguiar was focused on protecting services such as libraries and assistance programs as the city is likely to face further budget cuts in coming years, while Clark spoke of cutting down to core services such as public safety and infrastructure.
