Mayor Sylvester Turner and challenger Tony Buzbee are not the only candidates in Houston facing a runoff election Dec. 14. Twelve of 16 city council seats are yet to be determined.
Of the largest cities in Texas, Houston is the only one that holds elections in November. All others hold local elections in May, with some runoffs scheduled in June.
According to state law, if no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote a runoff election must be scheduled within 20 to 30 days of Election Day.
On Nov. 5, Houston held a general election for mayor, controller, and all 16 seats on the city council. All of Districts A through F nonpartisan seats are headed to a runoff, excluding E and G, whose incumbents were reelected. All five at large nonpartisan slots are headed to a runoff.
This election saw one of the largest fields of new candidates running for office. Only 8 out of 137 candidates were incumbents. Of those heading to runoff, only four are incumbents.
General runoff candidates (all nonpartisan) include:
District A: Amy Peck and George Zoes
District B: Cynthia Bailey and Tarsha Jackson
District C: Abbie Kamin and Shelley Kennedy
District D: Carolyn Evans-Shabazz and Brad Jordan
District F: Van Huynh and Tiffany Thomas
District H: Karla Cisneros (Incumbent) and Isabel Longoria
District J: Edward Pollard and Sandra Rodriguez
At-large candidates (all nonpartisan) include:
Position 1: Mike Knox (Incumbent) and Raj Salhotra
Position 2: David Robinson (Incumbent) and Willie R. Davis
Position 3: Michael Kubosh (Incumbent) and Janaeya Carmouche
Position 4 Anthony Dolcefino and Letitia Plummer
Position 5 Sallie Alcorn and Eric Dick
The nonpartisan nonprofit election site Ballotpedia asked all candidates to respond to its election survey. Among those facing the Dec. 14 runoff, only Tiffany Thomas, Janaeya Carmouche, Anthony Dolcefino, and Eric Dick replied.
