HOUSTON – Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner beat Tony Buzbee by 24,000 votes or 13 percentage points in the recent runoff for Houston Mayor.
It was a contentious campaign that Turner said he’s glad to put behind him. He also said because storms are coming with greater frequency and intensity, that flood mitigation is one of his top priorities in the weeks and months ahead.
“I’m very pleased to say to Houstonians that three of the four top major infrastructure projects for flooding have been approved by the federal government and fully funded,” he said.
In his first Newsmakers interview since his election, the mayor talked about other priorities for his administration, including improving relationships with the Houston Fire and Police departments and ramping up the process of improving streets and much more.
Rice political scientist says it was NOT a great win for Turner
Dr. Mark Jones, Ph.D. is a Political Science Fellow at the Baker Institute at Rice University and says while Mayor Turner’s win was a good one, the fact that Houston is 55% Democratic indicates something else.
“What it showed was that he won the Democratic support but he didn’t win much republican or much independent support at all,” Jones said. “So while it was a good win, it isn’t a great win.”
Jones also weighs in on how the “Trump” factor impacted the Buzbee campaign, how the change in City Council will affect this term and Jones talk at length about the Impeachment process and what’s ahead on the national political scene.
Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall airs Sunday at 10:30 a.m.
More information
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner
- 713-837-0311
- Twitter: @houmayor
Mark Jones, Ph.D., political science fellow, Baker Institute, Rice University
- 713-348-2107
- Twitter: @MarkPJonesTX