|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Incumbent Houston City Councilmembers Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, Mary Nan Huffman and Letitia Plummer won re-election by comfortable margins in Saturday’s runoffs.
Mario Castillo, Twila Carter, Willie Davis and Julian Ramirez, all four vying for open seats, also won their runoffs.
Evans-Shabazz, who represents District D, defeated longtime community activist Travis McGee, while Huffman faced down flashy trial lawyer Tony Buzbee, whose last-minute entry made the District G race one to watch this election cycle.
Buzbee conceded the race in a statement on Facebook, and Huffman issued a statement declaring victory with most of Saturday’s in-person ballots still uncounted.
Plummer came into Saturday with a smaller edge in early and absentee voting, but outlasted challenger Roy Morales.
The trio of incumbents were pushed into runoffs during the Nov. 7 general election, but led from the start of early returns Saturday.
Castillo, a nonprofit director, won the open District H council seat against real estate broker Cynthia Reyes Revilla after the latter came under fire last week for allegedly using homophobic rhetoric in a recent campaign mailer.
Davis, a pastor who ran unsuccessfully for the At Large 2 seat in both 2015 and 2019, defeated Nick Hellyar despite questions about whether Davis resides in Houston.
The next council will work through a mayoral transition and will also have more power over the agenda, a new dynamic for the city’s legislators, thanks to the passage last month of Proposition A.
Saturday’s results:
District D
Evans-Shabazz fell just short of the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright in November, but came back strongly in the head-to-head contest with McGee Saturday.
Evans-Shabazz, a former chair of the Houston Community College board of trustees, said crime and illegal dumping were major issues in District D that she would continue to tackle, if re-elected. During her first term, her office has provided $50,000 to pay for police overtime to increase patrols in District D.
McGee currently is president of the Sunnyside Gardens-Bayou Estates Civic Club and has been a community activist for nearly two decades. He said crime, drainage issues and road conditions were three of the most important issues he would tackle, if elected.
McGee only earned about 17 percent of the vote in the November election. He later was endorsed by two of the other candidates who did not make the runoff.
District D includes portions of Houston’s south side, from Third Ward to Beltway 8.
District G
In one of the only high-profile City Council elections this cycle, Huffman defeated Buzbee to hold onto her seat.
“I am humbled and pleased to declare victory tonight!” Huffman wrote in a statement Saturday night. “We had an amazing group of volunteers. It takes a team to win a race as contentious as this one.”
Buzbee then conceded via Facebook.
“In the runoff, most of the special interests, lobbyists, and political action committees that rely upon city hall for their livelihood spent hundreds of thousands of dollars against us,” he wrote. “Sadly, those folks will sleep a bit better tonight because we fell short.”
Huffman narrowly was forced into the runoff against Buzbee, after garnering 49.5 percent of the November vote, just shy of the 50 percent threshold to win outright. Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor, told Houston Public Media that Buzbee’s name recognition helped propel him into the runoff.
Huffman, a lawyer for the Houston Police Officers’ Union, first was elected to City Council in a 2022 special election to replace then-District G Councilmember Greg Travis, who left to run for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives.
Buzbee lost a mayoral bid against Sylvester Turner in 2019.
District G encompasses much of Houston’s west side, including wealthy swaths of the city like River Oaks.
District H
Former Houston Health Department employee and nonprofit director Castillo defeated veteran Houston firefighter Reyes Revilla in the runoff race for the District H council seat, left open by term-limited Councilmember Karla Cisneros.
Reyes Revilla came under fire last week, accused of using homophobic rhetoric in a recent campaign mailer. The controversy led to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez rescinding his endorsement of Reyes Revilla.
Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia, who previously had endorsed Reyes Revilla, also expressed his disappointment in Reyes Revilla on X. In response, she said she “released” Garcia from his endorsement in an Instagram post.
District H includes parts of central and northern Houston.
At-Large Position 1
Retired lawyer and businessman Julian Ramirez was neck and neck with family law attorney Melanie Miles through most of the night before edging her for At Large Position 1, the seat currently held by term-limited Councilmember Mike Knox.
With all ballots counted Sunday morning, Ramirez beat Miles by a little more than 300 votes.
Ramirez, who was endorsed by Knox, told the Houston chapter of the League of Women Voters he was running for council “to make our city safer, our streets and infrastructure better, and our government more functional for everyone.”
Miles had said she would champion increased investments in public safety, improved infrastructure and affordable housing initiatives.
Ramirez and Miles both had run for office as Republicans previously, but Miles received Democrat support this election cycle. Houston’s municipal elections officially are nonpartisan.
At-Large Position 2
Davis defeated Hellyar Saturday night after the pair emerged from a six-candidate November field.
Davis, a pastor who ran twice against term-limited incumbent David Robinson, campaigned on improving public safety, city infrastructure and balancing the city budget.
According to a Houston Chronicle report, Davis’ address raised concerns about his ability to hold office in Houston.
He listed a home near MacGregor Park on his ballot application, but Brazoria County property records show Davis bought a home in Iowa Colony in 2021, where he claims a homestead exemption, the Chronicle reported.
To claim a homestead exemption on a property, it must be your main residence, according to Texas law.
Hellyar said he was running to address crime, flooding and road infrastructure. He said he hopes to use his prior knowledge working at City Hall as a director of constituent services “to help build a safer, more prosperous, and healthier Houston for us all.”
At-Large Position 3
Twila Carter jumped out to a narrow lead over Richard Cantu in early voting and clung to that lead throughout the evening.
The pair finished ahead of seven other candidates in the November election looking to succeed outgoing Councilmember Michael Kubosh.
Cantu, a Harris County Department of Education trustee, told the League of Women Voters that public safety, infrastructure and flood mitigation, and the city’s impending budget crisis were top priorities he hopes to tackle, if elected.
He also emphasized the importance of keeping a “regional perspective” on the city’s public policy and projects.
Carter, a former executive for the Astros and the Astros Foundation, said she would prioritize neighborhood safety, lowering taxes and stopping wasteful spending, and improving Houston’s infrastructure and flood mitigation, if elected.
Carter said her career offered her great perspective and could help her bring a business minded representation to council.
At-Large Position 4
Incumbent Plummer maintained a healthy but not insurmountable lead over Morales for much of the night Saturday, after failing to win at least 50 percent of the vote in her four-candidate November race. That margin had not narrowed appreciably with all but a handful of voting centers counted early Sunday.
Plummer, a dentist, ran for re-election on a campaign based on creating a comprehensive and holistic plan to improve public safety and Houstonians’ quality of life, according to the League of Women Voters’ voter guide.
During her first term, Plummer pushed for more protection for renters during the pandemic and for police reforms following George Floyd’s murder.
Morales, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, has run for a slew of public offices during the past 20 years. He told the League of Women Voters that, if elected, he would prioritize “fighting crime, fixing our streets and picking up the garbage.”
Morales also has pledged to get the city to rejoin a federal program that targets immigrants without legal status, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g).
Republish our articles for free, online or in print.
