Three and counting, with more surely to come.
CM Letitia Plummer
Letitia Plummer’s bid for Harris County judge means her at-large seat on Houston City Council is now open.
The Houston City Council will soon decide when to hold an election to fill the slot, but it will likely take place this Nov. 4.
Here are the candidates who say they plan to run.
[…]
Dwight Boykins
Boykins, who formerly served on City Council representing neighborhoods like the Museum District and Third Ward, told the Chronicle Tuesday he too would be entering the race for Plummer’s position.
Boykins was elected to the council initially in 2013. He also ran for mayor in 2019 and floated a run for Texas governor in 2018.
If elected to council, Boykins said he wants to tackle the city’s finances, enhance public safety and ensure infrastructure improvements are sustainable and equitable across Houston’s neighborhoods.
“Serving the people of Houston has been the greatest honor of my life,” Boykins said in a Tuesday news release. “I’m running for At-Large Position #4 because our city needs leadership that’s bold, experienced, and ready to act on the challenges we face — from public safety and food deserts to caring for our seniors and neighborhood revitalization.”
He continued: “I am the only candidate that will enter this race that can hit the ground running on day one. I just couldn’t continue to sit on the sidelines while our city faces so many pressing issues.”
Boykins has so far received endorsements from Mayor Pro Tem Martha Castex-Tatum, Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and Houston City Council Member Willie Davis.
Al Lloyd
Lloyd, a native Houstonian, got involved in politics when Ada Edwards ran for Houston City Council. He has since worked with Harris County Flood Control and on infrastructure projects in the area, but only as a community leader and civic club president at South MacGregor.
Through his service in the community, he told the Houston Chronicle Tuesday he found getting resources diverted to what you need when you’re not working from the city is hard, which ultimately steered him toward running for the position.
“Our city deserves leaders who show up, follow through, and deliver,” Lloyd said in a Tuesday statement. “I’m not running to talk, I’m running to do. Houstonians are ready for a fresh, accountable voice at City Hall who will fight for jobs, infrastructure, and quality of life across every zip code.”
Lloyd’s campaign will focus on workforce development, small business support, enhancing public safety, improving drainage and expanding access to city services, he said.
See here for the background. The article led off with Alejandra Salinas, but I wrote about her yesterday so I’m skipping her here.
You may be thinking, as I did at first, “wait a minute, isn’t Dwight Boykins term limited from Council?” And the answer is no, because he was an incumbent when the updated term limits law was passed, which changed the limits from three two-year terms to two four-year terms. Incumbent Council members who were in their first (two-year) term when this passed were allowed to run for two four-year terms. Boykins, who was elected in 2013 and re-elected in 2015, did not run for that second four-year Council term and thus may run for one more. Confusing, I know, but there it is.
As was the case with Alejandra Salinas before, this is my introduction to Al Lloyd (*), who also seems like a solid candidate. You have to raise some real money to break through in an At Large race, because the voters tend not to know who many of the candidates are unless they were already a recognizable name going in. It might be a little different this November, as the electorate will be smaller and thus more hardcore, but you still have to get your name out to them. I’ll see who might have been raising money in anticipation of this before the June 30 deadline – as noted, this was The Worst Kept Secret in Houston politics – but the next reporting period won’t be until October, for the 30-day reports. So we may not know very much about some of these folks before then.
(*) – There was an Al Lloyd who ran for Pearland ISD in 2018. I can’t tell if this is the same person or not.
UPDATE: The count is now four:
Obes Nwabara
Nwabara, who works at power company Calpine and serves as the president of Art Colony Association, Inc., previously ran for the council’s at-large 2 seat. The race was ultimately won by Council Member Willie Davis.
Nwabara said his campaign will focus on affordable housing, water infrastructure and food insecurity.
I know Obes from his previous candidacy and from his Democratic activism. Again, I expect there to be more candidates in this race.