BREAKING: Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee, Endorsed By Hillary Clinton, Loses Houston Texas Mayoral Race In Landslide! t.co/pyqEUX1ubK
— John Basham (@JohnBasham) December 10, 2023
via politico
Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire defeated Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in the Houston mayoral race in Saturday’s runoff election after a campaign heavily focused on voter concerns over safety on the streets.
Whitmire, a perennial tough-on-crime voice who for decades heralded Texas regulations over public safety, was declared the winner by the Associated Press with 57 percent reporting. At that point, Whitmire was leading by an almost 2-to-1 margin.
With backing from the city’s fire department and police unions and a multimillion-dollar campaign war chest, Whitmire was the early favorite in the race and finished first in the 18-candidate general election in November. When no candidate secured 50 percent of the vote, the race went to a runoff.
Whitmire leaned on a coalition of moderate Democrats, independents and conservative voters, with a prominent campaign promise to make the city safer with increased policing.
City elections are officially nonpartisan in Houston, the country’s fourth-largest city with more than 2.3 million people, but Democrats have held the office since 1982.
The showdown between Whitmire and Jackson Lee illuminates the fault lines within the Democratic Party over how to deal with crime on a local level, also seen in mayoral races in Los Angeles and New York City in recent years. Crime has “really become a major issue — not only reality, but the perception. We cannot have Houston perceived as not being a safe city,” Whitmire previously told POLITICO. “I’m representing Houstonians. That’s what they want.”