The filing deadlines have passed for HISD and HCC, so this seems like as good a time as any to look at who is running for what. Note that the deadline for CD18 and Houston City Council is September 3, so we’ll have to wait for those. Here are your candidates for HISD Trustee:
District I: Felicity Pereyra. She showed up in our early look at who was running; most of the other candidates listed here are mentioned there, and I wrote what I knew about them then. As incumbent Trustee Elizabeth Santos did not file for re-election and no one else joined in, she will be the new Trustee in my district. Note her strong anti-takeover stance, that is going to be a theme going forward.
District V: Maria Benzon and Robbie McDonough. As expected, incumbent Sue Deigaard did not file for re-election, so we will have at least two new Trustees next year. Benzon ran in 2021 – you can listen to my interview with her here – and she was the more left-leaning candidate at that time. I have not met or spoken with Robbie McDonough yet so I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but his campaign webpage touts an op-ed he wrote last year saying he had hope about the Mike Miles administration at the beginning but based on everything that had happened he had morphed into a protester. I think it’s safe to say that this district will also have a vocal takeover opponent in place.
District VI: Incumbent Kendall Baker, and challenger Michael McDonough. Yes, there could be two Trustees named McDonough, and yes that temporarily threw me off in writing this post. Michael McDonough was known to be a candidate as of that early look post, while Robbie McDonough is the newcomer on the scene. As noted before, I do not like Kendall Baker and am rooting for his defeat. Michael McDonough is a former HISD teacher and principal and would be another strong opponent of the takeover.
District VII: Incumbent Bridget Wade, and challenger Audrey Nath. Nothing new to add here, just that Nath would be – you guessed it – another strong opponent of the takeover. The Board could be very different in a few months.
District IX: Incumbent Myrna Guidry is unopposed. I suppose I don’t know what her position is on the takeover.
Here’s what we knew about their July campaign finance reports before HISD redid their webpage. The three districts where there are active elections should be spirited races. I’m looking forward to doing these interviews.
For HCC, we have the following:
District I: Incumbent Monica Flores Richart, and challenger Milton “Miles” Sasser. I’ve known Monica Flores Richart for a number of years and I think highly of her as a person and a Trustee. She’s a periodic guest on the CityCast Houston podcast, go search their archives if you want to hear some recent takes from her; my interview with her from 2019 is here. I couldn’t find anything about Milton “Miles” Sasser online other than that he’s a licensed attorney. I have been informed by a reliable source that he’s a MAGA guy who may have been recruited by Dave Wilson, which tracks since Flores unseated Wilson in 2019 and it wouldn’t surprise me if he carries a grudge. If you’re not in CD18 and you’re looking for a race to get involved in outside of City Council, go give Monica Flores Richart a hand.
District II: Incumbent Renee Jefferson Patterson, challenger Kathleen “Kathy” Lynch Gunter, and challenger Desmond Spencer. As noted before, Jefferson was appointed to fill the seat vacated by now-Rep. Charlene Ward Johnson. This is her first election for this seat, though she ran for Houston City Council District B in the past. Gunter ran for this seat in 2022 after it was vacated by the resignation of then-Trustee Rhonda Skillern Jones; my interview with her for that election is here. Spencer is a new name, he reached out to me following the deadline to introduce himself. This should be an interesting race and may go to a runoff.
District VII: Incumbent Cynthia Lenton Gary is unopposed. She was unopposed in 2019 as well – nothing beats a little luck in politics.
Here are the July finance reports, which won’t tell you much. I’ll be doing some interviews here as well. Let me know what you think.