Above: State Senator and Houston mayoral candidate John Whitmire shaking hands with a supporter as he arrived for an election watch party.
On December 9, the next mayor of America’s fourth-most populous city will be decided. With the initial round of the Houston mayoral election failing to determine a clear victor among 18 contenders, candidates Sheila Jackson Lee, 73, and John Whitmire, 74, veterans who’ve racked up decades in federal and state political office respectively, are poised to go head-to-head in a runoff.
Houston is a young city and both candidates campaigned on local campuses. (Whitmire earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Houston; Jackson Lee attended Yale.) But despite the immense amount of money and power at stake, few Houstonians under 30 seem to be discussing the race. Indeed, many college students the Texas Observer recently interviewed were unaware that a major election was even happening.
