Unofficial vote totals from the St. Joseph Co. Clerk's office indicate that with over 99% of precincts counted, Democrat James Mueller winning the race for South Bend mayor over Republican Sean Haas. Mueller got about 65% of the vote while Haas received approximately 34.9%.
Mueller told his supporters, “I want to give credit to my opponent and my grade school friend Sean for making this race more competitive, but it is important that we won resoundingly to send a message that Trumpism has no place in South Bend.”
Among the crowd there to cheer him on was Pete Buttigieg, the outgoing mayor of South Bend. Buttigieg is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Mueller was a member of Buttigieg's staff.
Mueller is the city's Department of Community Investment director and Buttigieg endorsed him for the Democratic nomination.
Mueller declared the city would take the election momentum into 2020 and pointed to Buttigieg while saying "with our next president standing right over there."
The crowd responded with a chant of "Pete! Pete! Pete!"
Buttigieg had called Mueller's Democratic primary win in May a "good validation" of his administration's work in the 100,000-person city since he became mayor in 2012.
Watch a portion of Mueller's victory speech below.
This link will allow you to scroll the complete election results from St. Joseph County:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V80A5f2mX0&feature=youtu.be