Long before jumping into the mayoral race, Ron Nirenberg was quietly putting into place all the pieces he needed to succeed in a gamble that most people saw as a losing bet.

On Saturday, he did what no candidate has done in two decades: defeat a mayor running for re-election. It was the first time since Howard Peak defeated Bill Thornton in 1997 that a challenger ousted an incumbent.

Nirenberg said he began plotting a path to the mayor’s seat when he concluded that Mayor Ivy Taylor was derailing the progress San Antonio had been making.

There had been hints that he was interested in the job. The first came in the summer of 2014, when then-Mayor Julián Castro left to join President Barack Obama’s Cabinet. His replacement, per the city charter, had to come from within the ranks of the council. Nirenberg, then the councilman for District 8, raised his hand. But just a year into his freshman term, he couldn’t persuade his colleagues to support him.

He supported Taylor’s appointment, along with other council members, in part because she said she wouldn’t seek a full mayoral term in 2015. But when she ultimately ran and was elected, Nirenberg saw San Antonio tack toward a different course — one that he didn’t think was the right trajectory.

Months before he officially declared his candidacy, Nirenberg posted midyear fundraising totals in July 2016 that showed he was clearly gearing up to challenge Taylor. He said many warned him that taking on an incumbent was foolish. But Nirenberg saw a path to victory where few others did. He passed on a near-certain re-election to his District 8 seat and rejected the conventional wisdom of not challenging sitting mayors.

Nirenberg said his election was a win for democracy.

“Anybody can do this if they work hard enough,” he said. “Being truly independent isn’t about a party label. It’s who you answer to. And for me, that’s the public.”

On the campaign trail, Nirenberg said he constantly met people who said they were voting for the first time, contributing financially for the first time or volunteering for the first time. A stalwart supporter of civic engagement, he plans to push for more interaction with the public, including inviting dissenting voices to the table. He’s a proponent of moving the municipal elections to November in order to increase voter participation.

Nirenberg ran a campaign that focused on issues and drawing distinctions between himself and Taylor, doubling down on the idea that a majority of San Antonio wanted change in the mayor’s office. He defeated Taylor 54.6 percent to 45.4 percent.

On Sunday, before a morning church service, he worked on weekly household chores, folding laundry, among other things.

Nirenberg’s wife, Erika Prosper, who was a migrant farmworker until she graduated from high school, said her husband starts every Sunday by sorting laundry and prepping his protein shakes for the week.

“She always thinks I’m stressed out doing the chores,” Nirenberg said. “But I’m only stressed out if the chores don’t get done.”

Then they headed to Colonial Hills United Methodist Church, where the mayor-elect received a hero’s welcome. Folks patted him on the back, shook his hand and hugged him as he made his way into the sanctuary. During the service, the Rev. Diana Phillips requested that Nirenberg and his family come to the front. She described her pride to the congregation that their member had been elected mayor, and the Nirenbergs received a standing ovation.

Afterward, the family, including Nirenberg’s father and stepmother, feasted on a sushi lunch — a post-election day tradition they’ve kept up since 2013, when Nirenberg first ran for the District 8 seat. The day wasn’t all respite, however. Nirenberg met with a transition team at his home Sunday afternoon to begin sketching out the formation of his administration.

He’s working on putting together a team that will be significantly larger than his council office staff. He’s also formalizing his agenda. Among the priorities for his first 100 days in office are plans to create a strategy for a long-term, comprehensive modern transportation system and to build a framework for a housing policy that addresses gentrification and reinvestment in communities that doesn’t threaten those who have lived there for generations.

And Nirenberg has begun drafting the initial steps for ethics reform. He has called for an independent ethics czar and Ethics Review Board that aren’t controlled by the City Council or the city manager. Still, Nirenberg has a strong relationship with City Manager Sheryl Sculley, whose future appears solid in his administration.

On Sunday evening, the mayor-elect met with Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, who had endorsed Taylor in her re-election bid. Wolff had backed former state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte in her 2015 mayoral bid against Taylor, and afterward Wolff pledged his support to Taylor. Still, he said he and Nirenberg align on a lot of issues, including their opposition to Senate Bill 4, the divisive anti-immigration law, and their displeasure of the Trump administration’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord.

Nirenberg said he plans to sign on to a U.S.-cities commitment to uphold the accord’s ideals even if the federal government won’t.

Wolff said he’s looking forward to working with Nirenberg.

“He’s a very intellectual, very smart guy,” Wolff said. “I think he’s going to be a very good mayor.”

Sandwiched between those meetings, Nirenberg got in a workout. A former bodybuilder, he is arguably the physically strongest mayor San Antonio has ever had. On Sunday, he knocked out multiple sets of back squats at 315 pounds. At his victory party the day before, campaign officials told the crowd about the feats of strength Nirenberg has accomplished. With a physique not unlike the cartoon character Popeye, Nirenberg has a small can of spinach tattooed on his inner forearm.

While he’s physically strong, he’s aware he is taking over a position that is weak, at least on paper.

But two of Nirenberg’s predecessors, former Mayors Castro and Phil Hardberger, both found power in the seat. Part of that comes through building coalitions with council colleagues, said Christian Archer, a political consultant who worked for Castro and Hardberger. He said both men built alliances early in their tenures. Nirenberg needs to set his agenda and meet with the 10 council members to discuss their district agendas, Archer said. If he helps them be successful, they’ll support his agenda, the consultant said.

Citing a “tremendous” victory, Archer said Nirenberg has a mandate and is positioned to build strong coalitions with a majority of the council members, six of whom are new to the dais. Archer praised the council as a whole, noting there are some “young, aggressive, sharp” new members in William “Cruz” Shaw, Greg Brockhouse and Ana Sandoval. Nirenberg also will likely find natural allies in Roberto Treviño, Manny Pelaez, John Courage and, perhaps, Shirley Gonzales.

Rey Saldaña, who often has sided with Nirenberg over the past two years, could end up being one of the new mayor’s top lieutenants.

“This sounds like a shot at Ivy Taylor, and I don’t mean it to be, but you want the leadership from the mayor’s office, steadfast leadership,” Archer said. “And people get that from Ron. They see Ron as a leader.”

jbaugh@express-news.net