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When only a fifth of registered voters turn up to vote, candidates will try pretty much anything to gin up interest in their campaigns.
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee promised to be an education mayor focused on chasing the state of Texas out of the Houston Independent School District. One of her general election opponents, Annie “Mama” Garcia, focused her entire campaign on the HISD takeover. Soon-to-be controller Chris Hollins said he would make housing more affordable, and his opponent, Orlando Sanchez, promised to create public safety districts, if elected.
The only problem: The offices they were seeking have no direct control over those issues.
“A lot of the people, they don’t study the issues and they’re not attuned to the various offices in terms of their scope and what they can and cannot do,” said Michael Adams, a professor of public affairs at Texas Southern University. “The candidates are just trying to broaden their appeal to as many voters as they can, and sometimes there’s hot-button issues that may be politically solvent at the moment.”
In other words, this phenomenon is not new, nor is it likely to stop anytime soon, particularly in low-turnout elections.
Municipal elections in Houston have struggled with turnout going back decades. The contests fall between federal and state election years and rarely receive the same level of attention from residents.
Throughout campaign season, candidates pointed to the issues residents cite as priorities in polling. Issues prevalent in national elections, which enjoy far higher turnout in the city of Houston, also made frequent appearances on the campaign trail.
“You have to do what you have to do to win, and sometimes it’s not pretty,” Sanchez said.
During a District B United forum on Nov. 30, Sanchez pitched attendees on his plan to create a public safety district in Houston, which would shift the city to a regional policing model where any licensed peace officer can be the first responder to an incident and a separate funding stream is created to finance the consolidated services.
The controller is the city’s chief financial officer. The job entails certifying the availability of funds prior to action by City Council and the mayor, conducting audits and managing the city’s investments.
Even if Sanchez had won, a public safety district would require buy-in from Houston’s mayor, City Council, voters, even the Texas Legislature to make it a reality.
The nuance behind policies is difficult to quickly explain to voters at forums and events where candidates typically have only a minute or two of speaking time for each question, Sanchez said.
“It becomes extremely difficult to talk issues when you’re on limited funds, plus you have a position that isn’t as sexy as say, the mayor’s office,” Sanchez said.
Hollins was guilty of the practice during the campaign, as well.
At the same forum, Hollins promised voters he would make housing more affordable, another policy area over which the controller’s office has no direct control.
In a text Wednesday, Hollins argued the rhetoric is a legitimate strategy because a vocal controller can advocate for good policy.
“The controller’s job is certainly complex, but voters understand the goal – protect our tax dollars and manage the city’s finances responsibly – so that’s what we focused on,” Hollins wrote. “In addition, we talked about how a proactive controller could bring best practices to city government from other major cities – and how that could make a difference in people’s lives, in everything from public safety to garbage pickup.”
The policies discussed by the candidates all address problems that were among the top priorities for voters heading into the election, according to polling.
That’s no coincidence, Adams said. The issues on the minds of voters also will be on the minds of candidates trying to win votes, he said.
“The political candidates will always try to appeal to as many voters as possible,” Adams said. “They will also try to address a range of issues that will demonstrate their understanding of a political policy area that may not be within the purview of the office they’re running for.”
Sanchez and Hollins also painted each other in partisan terms, despite the officially nonpartisan nature of the election.
During his closing remarks at the Nov. 30 forum, Hollins drew a direct contrast between himself and Sanchez, pointing to his service as interim Harris County Clerk during the 2020 election and claiming Sanchez is a supporter of President Donald Trump, who tried to overturn the results of that election.
“The problem with Orlando Sanchez’s support of Greg Abbott and Donald Trump was a values issue,” Hollins wrote. “If you don’t share the values of a majority of Houstonians, your priorities will also be out of sync.”
Sanchez frequently tied Hollins to Jackson Lee, arguing Hollins’ decision to drop out of the mayor’s race after Jackson Lee entered it showed they were close political allies. That strategy was the same as Hollins’, but working in the opposite direction to paint Hollins as overly liberal, Sanchez said.
“It’s one of those obscure positions,” said Sanchez, noting he was the Harris County chair for former Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign and is not a Trump supporter. “What happens is, it lends itself to a discussion of partisan issues, and I think Chris and I both did that.”
HISD was a major topic of discussion in the mayor’s race, even though the district and city are different entities controlled and overseen by different elected offices.
While she was a minor candidate for much of the general election, Garcia found herself standing next to the race’s eventual winner, state Sen. John Whitmire, during an Oct. 11 debate. That debate only required that candidates reach a threshold of 400 individual donors rather than total cash raised or polling.
Garcia was able to meet that threshold through a campaign entirely focused on the HISD takeover, despite the mayor having no power over the state or school district.
During the debate, she stayed on message, repeatedly pivoting the conversation back to the takeover. When Garcia was asked about potholes, she responded, “With all due respect, I didn’t come here to talk about potholes,” before saying it was “shameful that nobody on this stage has said or done anything about the takeover.”
Throughout the debate, she hammered Whitmire on a 2015 Senate vote to approve a bill that laid the groundwork for the takeover. That bill was supported by the entire Houston delegation of the Legislature.
Garcia did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
That same line of attack frequently was used by Jackson Lee throughout the runup to the general election and the month leading up to her runoff with Whitmire.
Jackson Lee attempted to contrast herself and Whitmire by describing herself as an “education mayor” while emphasizing the bully pulpit she would use to push back against the takeover and its policies.
Jackson Lee did not respond to a request for comment.
Whitmire, on the other hand, said he does not support the takeover, but his role as mayor only goes as far as being helpful and communicative with the Texas Education Agency and state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles so the takeover can end as quickly as possible.
“Education with the HISD takeover, there were some emotional-laden responses coming from the community, so politicians will try to tap into that even though we have more than 1,000 independent school districts, and it’s not in the purview of City Hall in terms of what city government can do,” Adams said.
In low-turnout elections like the Nov. 7 general election and the Dec. 9 runoff, the issues that appeal to voters’ are the ones that will drive them to the polls, Adams said. That is crucial in an election where every ounce of motivation among a candidate’s base can make a big difference in the outcome, he said.
“The politicians may feel in order to motivate voters, to get them to support their campaign, these emotional laden issues tend to resonate and drive people to the polls,” Adams said.
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