For the first time, San Antonio elected an African-American mayor on Saturday following a tight runoff race.

Although the Texas city is dominated by a large Hispanic population, the new mayor, Ivy Taylor, managed to beat popular Tejano State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte.

Taylor and Van de Putte, who was vying to become the city's first Latina mayor, held a runoff election since Texas state law requires a winner to receive over 50 percent of votes. As a result, Taylor, a Brooklyn native and Yale-educated urban planning professor, then won with 52 percent of the vote.

Before the election, Taylor sat on the San Antonio City Council and was appointed interim mayor last July when Julian Castro resigned to become Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

According to Reuters, Taylor gained a lot of support from blacks and conservative white voters. She also appealed to conservatives and Evangelicals by talking openly about her Christian faith.

On the other hand, Van de Putte, who has served on the Texas State Legislature for 25 years, appealed to the city's Hispanic community. She also stressed her longtime ties to the Democratic Party and the need to raise the minimum wage.

"I thank the Lord," said Taylor during her victory speech on Saturday night, according to Reuters.

"The work starts on Monday at City Hall. We come together now as a city," she added, reported The Associated Press.

Van de Putte's supporters say that her loss in the mayoral election is a bad sign for the Democratic Party in the state.

"It ought to scare every Democrat in Bexar County," said Christian Archer, Van de Putte's campaign manager, reports The Texas Tribune. "If you're a Democrat and in Bexar County, you better wake up," he warned.

"We keep putting the blinders over our eyes and saying, 'Oh, no, no, no, it'll go away.' And it's not going away," added Archer, a veteran of San Antonio mayoral politics. "What's not happening is the kind of turnout that we need."