Only two candidates remain in the running for mayor of the fourth-largest city in the United States. The next mayor of Houston, Texas, will be decided in the runoff election between state Sen. John Whitmire (D) and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas.)
The election will be held on Dec. 9, and while only about 21 percent of Houston’s 1.2 million registered voters cast ballots in the Nov. 7 election, any registered Houston voter can participate in the runoff. The race was dominated by issues of crime, crumbling infrastructure, and potential budget shortfalls.
Despite finishing first and second, respectively, in the general election on Nov. 7, both Mr. Whitmire and Ms. Jackson Lee failed to secure the necessary majority of votes to avoid a runoff.
Mr. Whitmire was declared winner of the 18-person field with 42 percent of the vote, and Ms. Jackson Lee came in second with 36 percent. None of the other contenders, including a write-in, managed to get more than 10 percent.
The winner of the runoff will succeed Democratic Mayor Sylvester Turner, who must leave office due to a term restriction.
Both candidates addressed the city’s budget, infrastructure, affordable housing, and crime in their last debates of the campaign, which took place earlier in the week.
Both politicians have been mainstays in the Houston area’s electoral landscape for many years. With 10 years in the Texas House of Representatives and 40 in the Texas Senate, Mr. Whitmire will be celebrating 50 years of public service in 2023.
Prior to her 1994 election to Congress, Ms. Jackson Lee spent four years serving on the Houston City Council.
Mr. Whitmire outspent and outraised the rest of the field by far in November. His campaign war chest was 14 times larger than Ms. Jackson Lee’s, according to the most recent campaign financial report.
The congresswoman, if elected, would make history as the first black woman to be mayor of Houston.
In a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Dec. 7, she says she is the “only candidate that’s fighting for kitchen table issues.” Included in the issues she asserts her administration would address were affordable housing and mental health services.
The Texas lawmaker also said she would focus on making neighborhoods safer by reducing crime and resisting the takeover of the Houston Independent School District by the State of Texas.
Low turnout is typical during off-year runoff elections. A mere 19 percent of registered voters took part in the 2019 Houston mayoral runoff.
Houston is one of the most populated and diverse cities in the state. According to U.S. Census data, Hispanics or Latinos constitute the largest demographic group in Houston, comprising 45 percent of the city’s inhabitants. Non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks follow at 24 percent and 22 percent, respectively.
Ms. Jackson Lee, who is unopposed in her congressional district due to the preponderance of black and Hispanic voters, has maintained her seat for nearly three decades. She would also require a substantial number of votes from electors of color across the city in order to win the mayoral election.
Mr. Whitmire serves a state Senate district where 37 percent of the voting-age population is Hispanic, 32 percent is white, 21 percent is African American, and 9 percent is Asian.
