HOUSTON — Houston elected Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire as its subsequent mayor on Saturday night time, elevating a Texas lawmaker who has represented the town for 50 years by giving him a victory over U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in a runoff.
Whitmire, 74, who’s considered one of Texas’ strongest Democratic legislators, will now be on the helm of America’s fourth-largest metropolis. His marketing campaign centered on lowering crime, enhancing streets and bringing folks collectively. He closely outspent Jackson Lee, who was operating to turn out to be Houston’s first Black feminine mayor.
The congresswoman’s marketing campaign additionally needed to take care of fallout from the discharge in October of an unverified audio recording that presupposed to seize her profanely berating workers.
Whitmire constructed an insurmountable lead amongst early voters, profitable amongst these voters by 30 proportion factors.
Whitmire and Jackson Lee had made it to Saturday’s runoff after rising from a crowded area of almost 20 candidates within the Nov. 7 normal election.
Both candidates – two of Houston’s greatest political fixtures – touted their decades-long political expertise as sturdy {qualifications} to guide a rising metropolis going through challenges that embody crime, crumbling infrastructure and potential finances shortfalls.
Whitmire began within the Texas Legislature in 1973, first as a state consultant and the vast majority of his time as a state senator. Jackson Lee has represented Houston in Congress since 1995 and earlier than that had served on Houston’s City Council.
Booming progress over the past decade has brought on municipal complications however has additionally turned the Houston space into an increasing stronghold for Texas Democrats. Although the mayoral race is nonpartisan, Whitmire and Jackson Lee are each Democrats.
Whitmire would be the oldest massive metropolis mayor within the U.S. He is ready to guide a metropolis which is changing into youthful, with a median age of round 35 and with 25% of its inhabitants beneath 18, in accordance with census figures.
The selection between Whitmire and Jackson Lee, who’s 73, annoyed some Democratic voters, significantly youthful ones, at a time when the get together is trying to find new political stars in Texas who would possibly finish 30 years of GOP dominance statewide.
The new mayor must take care of new legal guidelines from the GOP-led state authorities over management of native elections and the flexibility to impose native rules.
Whitmire will substitute Mayor Sylvester Turner, who has served eight years and might’t run once more due to time period limits.
Whitmire will even lead what is taken into account one of many nation’s most various cities. Of the town’s 2.3 million residents, 45% are Latino, with 23% Black and 24% white. One in each 4 Houston residents was born exterior the U.S.
Known because the vitality capital of the world, Houston’s financial system has lengthy been tied primarily to the oil trade. But the town is working to turn out to be a pacesetter within the transition to cleaner vitality. Like different giant U.S. cities, Houston can be coping with an absence of inexpensive housing and considerations amongst residents over rising gaps between the wealthy and poor.
