Houston City Councilman Robert Gallegos, who would be the Bayou City’s first-ever Latino mayor, announced Thursday that he was joining this November’s nonpartisan primary to succeed termed-out incumbent Sylvester Turner, but an even more prominent Democrat also appears to be eyeing the race. An unreleased poll from earlier this month tested Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee as a possible contender, and while she hasn’t said anything publicly about running, longtime political writer Charles Kuffner says her campaign is indeed surveying the race.
Kuffner writes that he learned this because he himself was sampled, and he made sure to ask who was behind the poll at the very end. The filing deadline isn’t until late August, and a prominent figure like Jackson Lee may be able to afford to wait a while before deciding if she wants to get in; Jackson Lee would not need to sacrifice her safely blue House seat, though, if she decided to seek the post this year. The field may expand no matter what the congresswoman does, as the Houston Chronicle’s Dylan McGuinness says that bond investor Gilbert Garcia, who is the former head of the local public transit authority METRO, is “expected” to run himself.
Gallegos, for his part, is the only gay member of the City Council, and his win would make Houston the largest city to ever elect a gay Latino mayor; Gallegos would also be the city’s second-ever LGBTQ leader after Annise Parker, who served from 2010 to 2016. The city councilman has just $134,000 on-hand in his campaign account, though, and he acknowledges, “I'm going to be spending a lot of time making [fundraising] calls.”
Four other serious candidates were already running: former City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards, former Harris County interim clerk Chris Hollins, attorney Lee Kaplan, and state Sen. John Whitmire. Edwards, Hollins, and Kaplan each have about $1 million to spend; no one knows yet, though, how much of Whitmire’s $10.1 million war chest, which includes money he raised to run for the state legislature, he’ll be able to put to use in this race. A runoff would take place should no one earn a majority in November.
P.S. While either Gallegos or Garcia would be Houston’s first Latino mayor, they wouldn’t quite be its inaugural Hispanic leader. McGuinness notes that Joseph Pastoriza, whose parents were Spanish immigrants, was elected in 1917; Pastoriza died a few months later, and no other Hispanic politicians have won since.
