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Port Arthur Position 7 incumbent Charlotte Moses held on to win outright after the city counted absentee ballots Tuesday night. Moses has served two terms on the council.

Prior to the absentee ballots, Moses had 49 percent of the vote, which would’ve forced a runoff between challenger Rashad Harris. Absentee ballots gave Moses 51 percent of the vote.

She called avoiding a runoff an answer to her prayers.

“I am so excited to have an opportunity to go back and complete the work we have started,” she said. “We are going to continue to work on streets and infrastructure.”

Moses wants to continue to be transparent and show the residents of Port Arthur what the council is doing to better the city.

“We started to advertise the Coffee With the Council,” she said. “With COVID, we haven’t been able to do it the same way, but I want to continue to be that transparent. The other day I posted a video on Facebook that showed the street work on Sunken Court. I wanted to show people that we are doing the work. It just takes time.”

Moses said she wants to show the people the work in being done in front of the residents and not “under the table.”

In a previous interview with The News, Moses touted the ongoing housing and business development in downtown, as well as a down-payment assistance program for families moving to that area.

“We’ve accomplished establishing a pipe-bursting crew to work on our infrastructure, our sewer, starting in Sabine Pass,” Moses said at the time. “Before you put on the top of a street, before you develop a street, you need to make sure the infrastructure is correct.”

Moses had 4,428 votes, compared to Harris’ 2614 and Yadi Cardenas’ 1,629.