Clea McCaa beats Steve Conroy and Rachel Gray in Sierra Vista mayor's race

A local business owner and veteran was voted to replace Rick Mueller as mayor of Sierra Vista, a military town in southeastern Arizona.

Clea McCaa, who owns a government contracting firm, won 39% of votes, compared with Steve Conroy, a retired U.S. Army officer who won 29.5% of votes, and city council member Rachel Gray, who won 24% of votes.

Of the total 77,394 registered voters, 61.10% turned out to vote with 35,173 of them participating in early voting, 11,994 voting on Election Day, and 117 submitting provisional ballots.

Although still considered unofficial results, all the ballots have been counted, according to the Cochise County elections website.

McCaa was born and raised in Sierra Vista and is a retired U.S. Army veteran who now runs a governmental contracting firm with his wife. He also has a list of other titles including president of the Greater Huachuca Area NAACP, pastor, chaplain for the Sierra Vista Police Department and founder of nonprofit Sierra Vista Dream Center, among others.

McCaa's goals for Sierra Vista include improving roads, bringing jobs to the area and "aggressively" focusing on economic development, public safety and support of first responders.

The other two candidates also had connections to the military and said they want to bring jobs to Sierra Vista, they each also have more specific issues they are passionate about, ranging from school curriculum to support for first responders.

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Rachel Gray

Gray is mayor pro tem and has been a Sierra Vista City Council member since 2013. According to an interview by the Herald/Review Media, Gray was born and raised in Mississippi. She moved to Sierra Vista when her husband was stationed at Fort Huachuca in 2001 and decided to stay.

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In the interview, Gray said her goals if elected mayor will be to help the city attract more workers and residents. She also said as the "hub" of the county, she would also want to help market the city.

Steve Conroy

A third candidate, Conroy, is a retired U.S. Army officer who has lived in Sierra Vista for 33 years. According to his campaign website, he is “opposed to Critical Race Theory, Culturally Relevant Training, woke ideology, common core.”

Also on his campaign website, Conroy listed “verify Sierra Vista has a valid voter registration process and secure voting integrity" as one of his many goals as mayor.

He also said he would like to establish an economic commission to help “focus on issues that keep businesses from coming to Sierra Vista,” as well as removing obstacles for people who want to move to the city.

In an interview with The Herald/Review Media, Conroy said he would like to have city-wide recycling for the city extend services to include glass, batteries and plastic bags. He also said he would like to put security cameras in all classrooms. In regard to infrastructure, he would like to create a five-year plan with a comprehensive program to restore and replace curbs and sidewalks.

Coverage of southern Arizona on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is funded by the nonprofit Report for America in association with The Republic.

Reach the reporter at sarah.lapidus@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sierra Vista elections: Clea McCaa beats challengers in mayor race