How we know this: every fact below was read on 2026-09-21 from the City of South Padre Island’s official 2026 election site (sites.google.com/myspi.org/2026spigeneralelection) and the City Council roster on myspi.org, plus two Port Isabel–South Padre Press reports — the 18 June 2026 story on Ken Medders’s death and the 20 August 2026 notice of the Chamber candidate forum. Left out for want of a source: both candidates’ biographies, employers and job titles, and every campaign-platform position an earlier draft attributed to them — none of it appears on any page we could fetch. Also dropped: a “$92 million” figure for the Convention Center expansion; the City’s own expansion site puts the multi-phase estimate at $98 million.
Early voting is open right now
Early voting by personal appearance for the South Padre Island City Council Place 1 special election began on 16 September 2026 and ends on 29 September 2026. Both early voting and Election Day voting are at the South Padre Island Community Center, 4501 Padre Boulevard.
Election Day is Saturday 3 October 2026, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., at the Community Center. Applications for a ballot by mail had to be received — not postmarked — by 5:00 p.m. on 22 September; mail ballots are handled by the Cameron County Elections Department, 1050 East Madison, Brownsville, Texas 78520.
The City posts a daily early-voting turnout page and an election-results page on its elections site.
What is on the ballot
This is a special election to fill the unexpired term of Council Member Place 1, a term that expires in 2028. The City’s City Council page currently lists Place 1 as Vacant.
Two candidates are on the ballot, per the City’s filing records:
- Gayle Hood — candidate application filed 20 July 2026.
- Rita Hernandez — candidate application filed 31 July 2026.
A third applicant, Cody Pace, filed on 3 August 2026 and is recorded as withdrawn. Both remaining candidates filed their 30-day campaign finance reports (Form C/OH) on 1 September 2026; Hernandez filed a corrected form on 8 September 2026. The 8-day reports were still listed as pending when we read the page.
After the election, a special City Council meeting to canvass the result may be called between 6 October and 14 October 2026.
Why the seat is open
Longtime council member John Kenneth “Ken” Medders Jr. died on 11 June 2026 following a brief illness. He was 77, and was serving on the South Padre Island Board of Aldermen — the city’s governing council — at the time of his death.
According to his family, his most recent term marked his 50th year in public service. Medders was born and raised in San Benito, graduated from St. Joseph Academy in Brownsville, attended Texas Lutheran University, worked in his family’s agricultural aviation businesses and later retired as a bank president with Prosperity Bank. He was first elected to the San Benito City Council in 1976, served on the South Padre Island Board of Aldermen in the early 1990s, and returned to office here in 2017, serving until his death. He was mayor pro tem in both San Benito and South Padre Island.
Hearing from the candidates
The South Padre Island Chamber of Commerce hosted its City Council Special Election Candidate Forum on Tuesday 8 September 2026 at 5:30 p.m. at the South Padre Island Convention Centre, 7355 Padre Boulevard. The Chamber has run candidate forums for more than twenty years and describes them as a neutral, structured setting for candidates to discuss local issues.
We are not characterising either candidate’s platform here. Nothing we could fetch on 2026-09-21 sets out their positions in their own words, so we would rather point you at the ballot and the record than put words in anyone’s mouth.
A second, separate election follows on 3 November
The 3 October special election is not the only one. A general election on Tuesday 3 November 2026 fills the expired terms of Mayor and Council Member Place 4, both for terms expiring in 2029. Candidate applications on file: Patrick McNulty and Bharat Patel (both filed 20 July 2026), Beverly Skloss (12 August 2026) and Rees Langston (13 August 2026). Early voting for that election runs 19 October to 30 October 2026, with Election Day again 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Community Center, 4501 Padre Boulevard.
So an Island voter gets two trips to the same building five weeks apart. The dates above come from the City’s own election calendar, which notes they are subject to change without notice.
What the new member walks into
Whoever wins Place 1 joins a five-member council, plus the Mayor, all elected at large. The largest item in front of them is the Convention Center renovation and annex — a multi-phase project the City describes as carrying an estimated cost of $98 million, for which the Council chose “Option B” at a special meeting on 18 August 2026. Further out, TxDOT’s South Padre Island Second Access Project — State Highway 104, a proposed second crossing of the Laguna Madre — remains in environmental study.
Sources
- City of South Padre Island 2026 Elections site — special-election date and polling place, early-voting dates, the unexpired Place 1 term to 2028, candidate application filings and Pace’s withdrawal, campaign-finance filing dates, canvass window, Cameron County Elections address, and the separate 3 November general election and its candidates.
- City of South Padre Island — City Council — Place 1 listed as Vacant; current Mayor and council members.
- City of South Padre Island — Government — the Council is a Mayor plus five members, all elected at large.
- Port Isabel–South Padre Press, “SPI Councilman Ken Medders dies at 77” (18 June 2026) — date and cause of the vacancy, Medders’s age and service record.
- Port Isabel–South Padre Press, “Candidate forum set for Sept. 8” (20 August 2026) — Hernandez and Hood as the two Place 1 candidates; forum date, time and venue.
- City of South Padre Island Convention Center Expansion site (official, linked from myspi.org) — the $98 million multi-phase estimate and the 18 August 2026 Option B decision.
- Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority — SPI 2nd Access — SH 104 designation and the ongoing environmental study.