{"id":1453525,"date":"2025-10-28T23:58:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T04:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1453525"},"modified":"2025-10-31T04:44:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T09:44:41","slug":"race-takes-shape-for-lufkins-open-ward-3-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1453525","title":{"rendered":"Race takes shape for Lufkin&#8217;s open Ward 3 seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/10\/2025-10-28_235805-199x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1453526\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/10\/2025-10-28_235805-199x200.jpg 199w, https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/10\/2025-10-28_235805.jpg 274w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/>LUFKIN &#8211; Following a Lufkin City Council member\u2019s decision to vacate his seat, three Lufkin residents are currently seeking to fill his position in the November elections. According to our news partner KETK, Councilman Brent Watkins, who currently serves in Ward 3, recently announced that he will be vacating his seat to run for mayor of Lufkin in the upcoming 2027 elections.<\/p>\n<p>Those looking to fill Watkins\u2019s seat on the city council include Kimberly Abeldt, Misty Ledesma, and Lin Lentz. Watkins will be looking to replace current Lufkin Mayor Hicks, who has been in office since 2021. Hicks announced earlier this year that he will not be seeking a third term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LUFKIN &#8211; Following a Lufkin City Council member\u2019s decision to vacate his seat, three Lufkin residents are currently seeking to fill his position in the November elections. According to our news partner KETK, Councilman Brent Watkins, who currently serves in Ward 3, recently announced that he will be vacating his seat to run for mayor &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1453525\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Race takes shape for Lufkin&#8217;s open Ward 3 seat<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1453778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/10\/2025-10-28_235805-199x200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1453525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-07 16:37:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/10\/2025-10-28_235805-199x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1453525"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1454267,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453525\/revisions\/1454267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1453778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1453525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1453525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1453525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}