by Hunter Dawkins, Owner/Publisher – editor@thegazebogazette.com or hdawkins@supertalk.fm
GULFPORT (GG) — After three and a half hours at city hall on Tuesday, June 9, the Gulfport Election Commission provided the unofficial results of the Gulfport Ward 2 Special Election at 10:30pm. Due to the state election law of having every vote counted, a small amount of absentee ballots have not been counted therefore the results cannot be official, but a runoff for the city seat has been determined for Tuesday, June 30, 2026.
Out of 1395 ballots, Bryan Caldwell led the other three candidates with a vote tally of 608 or 43.58%. The next candidate that Caldwell will face in a runoff is Ron Ruland who received 447 votes or 32.04% votes. Even with few absentee ballots not counted, both candidates have enough votes to put them in the runoff election.
Caldwell was a retired long time Gulfport School District Administrator while Ruland is the Director of Food Operations at Island View Casino & Resort in Gulfport.
The final two candidates were Howard Page and Kelsea Bonds who combined for the remaining 339 votes to complete the tally. Ward 2 became vacant April 23, 2026 at the resignation of Ron Ruland because of health complications after serving the city of Gulfport 9 years.
According to the state law, the city council runoff has to happen three weeks following the special election. Again, the date for the runoff election is Tuesday, June 30, 2026 from 7am-7pm in the Ward 2 precincts.
(Photo by Hunter Dawkins/The Gazebo Gazette via Associated Press)
