Anthony Tordillos has built a nearly insurmountable lead over Gabby Chavez-Lopez to become the next San Jose District 3 City Council representative following the most recent release of voting results.

Of the 8,282 votes counted as of Wednesday evening, Tordillos, 33, received 5,328, or 64.3%, making the runoff much less anticlimactic than the primary, which saw several twists and turns in the pecking order and even a recount due to the razor-thin margins of the contest.

Chavez-Lopez, 37, said she would not concede until every vote was counted. Santa Clara County election officials have not indicated how many ballots remain uncounted.

Chavez-Lopez, a nonprofit executive, and Tordillos, the city’s planning commission chair, advanced to a runoff after finishing as the top two vote-getters in the April primary, beating out a field of seven candidates vying to replace disgraced former City Councilmember Omar Torres, who resigned in November amid a sex abuse scandal.

The current results reflect a meteoric rise for Tordillos, who entered the race as a dark horse candidate against a crowded field with significantly more political experience and connections.

“I think the results show that folks are ready for a new type of politics in San Jose, one that focuses on bridging old divides between business and labor and is really focused on delivering results on housing, affordability, homelessness and public safety,” Tordillos said of the initial results. “I’m looking forward to being a councilmember that people in District 3 can count on.”

Votes will continue to be counted at least into next week, as the Registrar of Voters will still accept mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day for another week.

The seating of a new councilmember promises to help heal the distrust and wounds opened up by scandals that had shrouded the District 3 office.

Police arrested Torres — who was already embroiled in a separate sex scandal that prompted him to shrink from the public eye — on child molestation charges that he later pleaded no contest to earlier this year.

In granting the wish of District 3 residents to hold a special election to pick their next representative, the City Council also appointed local businessman Carl Salas in late January to serve as a caretaker until a winner emerged.

Chavez-Lopez led the seven-person field in the primary, earning approximately 30% of the overall vote. But because no candidate received more than 50% of the vote, the intrigue of the race came down to who would join Chavez-Lopez in a June 24 runoff.

In what many political pundits considered an upset, Tordillos eventually overcame a slight deficit on election night to overtake Matthew Quevedo, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan’s deputy chief of staff, by six votes. As mail-in votes trickled in over the week, Tordillos and Quevedo flip-flopped positions in the race multiple times before a recount moved Tordillos on to face Chavez-Lopez.

The candidates generally agreed on what the district’s most pressing issues were: homelessness, affordable housing development, public safety and blight, and creating a vibrant downtown core.

While both candidates were adamant that they were ready to hit the ground running, they differed in some instances on how the city could make meaningful progress.

For example, both candidates opposed a long-term shift in the use of Measure E dollars toward interim housing solutions and supported the concept that the long-term solution to homelessness is more affordable housing. While Chavez-Lopez emphasized the need for resources to prevent homelessness, Tordillos believed the city should invest now in a full spectrum of solutions, including expanding its shelter system.

Backed by several current members of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, Chavez-Lopez also emphasized the need for a more collaborative approach among all levels of government to address the homelessness crisis, adopting a softer tone than the sometimes antagonistic one from the dais that has led to a prickly relationship between the city and county.

With Chavez-Lopez and Tordillos sharing some similar policy views, questions surfaced over how the electorate that supported other candidates in the primary would vote.

Despite not seeing eye-to-eye on every issue with Tordillos, Mahan chose to put his political muscle behind him in the runoff, citing Tordillos’ independent, free-thinking attitude that was focused on outcomes.

But along with giving residents a more permanent voice on the dais, the District 3 race has higher stakes because it could determine how successful Mahan is in implementing his policy agenda moving forward.

In the early years of his tenure as mayor, Mahan had seen his policy agenda stifled at times due to the then-progressive-leaning makeup of the City Council. However, since the November election — when he gained a few more allies on the dais — Mahan has been more successful in advancing his policy ideas.

For example, Mahan had enough votes to push his budget proposal forward this year, which included the controversial Responsibility to Shelter proposal that creates an expectation for homeless residents to come indoors when there is available shelter or face potential arrest.

Although the City Council passed that policy earlier this month, Mahan’s Pay for Performance proposal, which called for a small portion of elected officials’ pay to be tied to metrics, was defeated.

While Chavez-Lopez opposed both policy proposals, Tordillos indicated he had mixed feelings — supporting Pay for Performance while opposing the arrest of unhoused individuals who refuse shelter.

How both candidates could impact policy direction moving forward remains to be seen, but while Mahan and Tordillos may have disagreements on the means to solve problems, they share common ground in that they believe constituents are fed up with the status quo.

Mahan said he believed Tordillos’ strong showing demonstrates that the government was failing to deliver meaningful outcomes and that constituents want their politicians to think differently in how they address the issues that matter most to them.

“The community is looking for change,” Mahan said in an interview with The Mercury News. “They’re looking for results and they want practical solutions to our problems … They want a government that works and that’s fundamentally what we want to build in San Jose and I view Anthony as a very strong ally in the movement we’re creating to change the culture at City Hall.”