Oklahoma elections: Ed Shadid wins Oklahoma City Council Ward 2 seat

“I just feel ecstatic,” Shadid said from his watch party. “This was a grassroots effort with dozens and dozens and dozens of people working people to people and neighborhood to neighborhood.”

Shadid will succeed Councilman Sam Bowman, who decided not to run for re-election to the north-central Oklahoma City district.

Shadid received 62 percent of the vote after a hotly contested campaign that saw each candidate accuse the other of negative campaigning.

Tuesday's results reversed those from the March 1 primary, when Shadid, 42, a spinal surgeon, and Swinton, 61, a senior officer with BancFirst, won the right to face each other in the runoff. Swinton received 43 percent of the vote, and Shadid 35 percent in a race that had six candidates.

“We led at the primary so my hat is tipped to him for his ability to turn it around,” Swinton said. “It was a big surprise to me. I thought we'd done everything to win ... I'm proud of my supporters; proud of what we tried to accomplish.”

Shadid's victory Tuesday prevented a controversial special interest group a sweep by city council candidates it supported in this year's elections.

The Committee for Oklahoma City Momentum spent more than $400,000 running campaigns supporting Swinton and three other candidates, according to campaign finance documents filed almost two weeks before the election.