John Whitmire offers his victory speech at his watch night time occasion for the runoff election.
Andrew Schneider/Houston Public Media
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Andrew Schneider/Houston Public Media
John Whitmire offers his victory speech at his watch night time occasion for the runoff election.
Andrew Schneider/Houston Public Media
Texas State Senator John Whitmire has defeated Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee to win election because the 63rd mayor of Houston. The tally from the Harris County Clerk’s Workplace confirmed Whitmire beating Jackson Lee by a margin of 65% to 35% with roughly over 131,000 early votes forged.
”Nice cities clear up their issues. Collectively, we will clear up our issues. The primary approach you clear up your downside is admit you might have one. And I do not thoughts telling people what an excellent metropolis we now have, however we have nice challenges,” Whitmire stated at his victory occasion on the George R. Brown Conference Middle in downtown Houston. ”It’s going to be a possibility to indicate the nation what town of Houston can do. We won’t kick our can down the street any longer.”
Whitmire led constantly in most polling ever since his first public announcement that he deliberate to run for mayor greater than two years in the past. The latest – the Houston Public Media/Houston Chronicle/College of Houston Political Science and Inhabitants Well being Ballot, performed after the primary spherical of voting – confirmed a number of developments that appear to have finally labored in Whitmire’s favor. The senator led strongly amongst older white voters and conservatives, two teams which can be extra possible than others to come back out to vote in municipal runoff elections.
Black voters, a core constituency of Jackson Lee’s, didn’t present the identical assist to the congresswoman within the first spherical of the mayoral contest as they did for Sylvester Turner, the present mayor, throughout his first victory in 2015. Turner had endorsed Jackson Lee within the present election. Whitmire additionally benefited from a plurality of assist amongst Latino voters. And whereas Whitmire led amongst males in Houston Public Media’s ballot, he additionally tied amongst girls, reducing into one other important Jackson Lee assist group.
In her concession speech, Jackson Lee stated that she was grateful for each vote, and stated of Whitmire that she ”decide to working with him, as a result of as I noticed town and listened to all of you, I do know that our concepts can put this metropolis sooner or later, as I’ve stated.”
The Houston Public Media ballot pinpointed the principle points on voters’ minds. Thirty-five p.c of possible voters polled stated crime was a very powerful situation within the race.
Whitmire made combating crime and bettering public security the cornerstone of his marketing campaign, saying he would convey 200 state troopers to Houston whereas town employed and educated a whole lot extra law enforcement officials. Whereas Jackson Lee additionally talked in regards to the significance of public security, she took a extra nuanced strategy, emphasizing the significance of making jobs, and violence intervention to get at a number of the root causes of crime.
By comparability, 18% of voters polled stated the financial system is a very powerful situation dealing with the subsequent mayor. Fourteen p.c pointed to the price of housing, whereas 10% stated town’s funds had been their chief concern.
Whereas Houston’s mayoral election was formally nonpartisan, Whitmire will enter the mayor’s workplace with half a century’s expertise in public service as an elected Democrat. He was first elected to the Texas Home of Representatives in 1972 and received election to the Texas Senate in 1982. He was first appointed chair of the Senate Prison Justice Committee in 1993 and continued to carry the put up lengthy after Republicans took over the chamber. He’s at present its longest-serving member, with the unofficial title of ”Dean of the Senate.”
Whitmire is the previous brother-in-law of Kathy Whitmire, who served as Houston’s mayor from 1982 to 1991.
”We’ll make this a safer metropolis,” Whitmire stated of his plans going ahead. ”We’ll do it by recruiting extra officers, supporting the officers we now have, the coalition constructing with different companies. Our infrastructure can be repaired and glued, not solely streets however water. Nice cities don’t boil their water for 2 days.”