HOUSTON – Election Day is Nov. 7 and one of the things Houstonians will decide on is who will become the 63rd mayor of Houston.
KPRC 2 has been able to get to know the 18 Houston mayoral candidates who aspire to lead the city. Take a closer look at their platforms:
Gaylon C. Caldwell
Candidate Gaylon S. Caldwell is a Texas Southern University graduate with a degree in Emergency Management/Homeland Security. He is currently a graduate student at the University of Houston, where he is pursuing a Master of Public Administration/Public Policy degree.
Caldwell is looking to decrease crime rates and highlights the importance of community throughout his campaign. He wants to increase pay for Houston firefighters, push local small businesses to the forefront, build a city that reflects all, and give all Houstonians the best quality of living for a better tomorrow through his “Priorities Plan.”
Caldwell wants to endorse marijuana-friendly policing, eliminate food deserts across the city and strategically decrease homelessness with on-site services and case management.
Dr. Jack Christie
Dr. Jack Christie received a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Texas Chiropractic College and runs two chiropractic practices in Houston.
He has served as a Houston City Councilman At-Large, Chairman of the Spring Branch School Board, and president of the State Board of Education. He also served in the Army Reserves Medical Corps for six years. Christie served on the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Houston Board of Directors for five years and volunteered as a Big Brother for eight years.
Christie wants to increase pay for firefighters, improve public safety and prioritize preventative health care. He believes in supporting law enforcement, having reportedly led the push to hire 500 new Houston Police Department officers as a city councilman. In 2017, Christie said helped lead the effort to reduce the city’s pension debt from $8 billion to $3 billion-- a decrease of 62.5%.
Robert Gallegos
Robert Gallegos is a Houston native who attended Stephen F. Austin High School. He received an associate degree in international trade and distribution from Houston Community College and a bachelor’s degree in organizational management from Ashford University. Gallegos was elected in 2013 to the Houston City Council, representing District I – an area that includes downtown, EaDo, Clinton Park, parts of northeast Houston, the greater East End and the Houston Ship Channel, as well as communities along I-45 south from downtown to Hobby Airport.
Gallegos worked in logistic sales of motor freight and international trade for over 25 years. He also served as a community liaison for a former county commissioner and worked for the Harris County Sheriff’s Department. Mayor Sylvester Turner appointed Robert to be Chair of Quality of Life, Vice Chair of Economic & Development and the former Chair on Regulation and Neighborhood Affairs.
He’s a strong advocate for senior citizens, people with disabilities, green spaces to enhance neighborhood parks, and reducing the number of stray dogs and feral cats.
Annie ‘Mama’ Garcia
Annie “Mama” Garcia ran for the U.S. Senate three years ago. She is a mother, wife, lawyer, English-Spanish-German speaker, small business owner, founder of non-profit OpHeart, dual Spanish-American national, and Rice University alumna. Garcia has prioritized public education throughout her campaign. She wants to expand the Parks and Recreation Department to provide after-school, summer school and tutorial services. Garcia also wants Houstonians to have the chance to voice their possible opposition to the Houston Independent School District takeover.
Gilbert Garcia
Gilbert Garcia grew up in a traditional middle-class Latino family in Corpus Christi, Texas. He is a first-generation college graduate from Yale University and has called Houston home since 1990 when he joined former Mayor Henry Cisneros in building Cisneros Asset Management Company, which he would later become the president of.
Garcia has been active in public service and giving back to the community for several years. From 2010 to 2016, Garcia served as Chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County. He was a member of the Treasury Advisory Committee on Racial Equity, FACA Committee convening under the U.S. Department of the Treasury and has served on two other FACA Committees with the SEC: the Fixed Income Market Structure Advisory Board and the Asset Management Advisory Committee, where he led the Diversity and Inclusion subcommittee.
If elected, Garcia wants to conduct an audit of the City’s Housing Department to address concerns of corruption, expand community policing to improve response time, implement improvements to the city’s water system, and engage with the Texas Education Agency to understand the pathway for Houston Independent School District’s success.
M. ‘Griff’ Griffin
M. Griffin is a University of St. Thomas graduate and the founder of Griff’s Irish Pub.
He organized the “Montrose Crime Out” program in 1990, which, according to him, helped decrease crime in the area by about 22%. In 2000, he helped the 59th mayor, Lee Brown, create the city’s first 311 self-help hotline which addresses pothole, streetlight and flooding concerns.
If elected, Griffin wants to address the city’s flooding issues through Public Works, fix the ongoing issues with potholes, decrease crime and implement preventative measures to decrease fentanyl deaths.
Naoufal Houjami
Naoufal Houjami is an entrepreneur, politician, and U.S. National Security Strategist, and Houston native. He believes that building strong families will result in a stronger city.
According to his website, the husband and father of four wants to fix what he called the “affordable housing crisis,” improve flood recovery and resiliency efforts, improve “transparency and ethical practices” in our government, lower crime rates and decrease gun violence, and build a nuclear reactor in Houston by 2035 to avoid any power outages during weather disasters.
B. Ivy
Please watch the video above for details on Ivy’s platform.
Lee Kaplan
Lee Kaplan is an attorney and Houston native who desires to address crime, traffic and potholes, garbage, and the city bureaucracy. The Princeton graduate later attended the University of Texas Law School. Kaplan believes prudent spending on mobility will help save money. He also believes that by cleaning up the city more effectively and efficiently, we can save money in the process. Kaplan says efficiency in public works, especially permitting and inspection, will accelerate the development of affordable housing and save money.
“It’s common sense that more visibility helps us with crime,” Kaplan said during the debate.
Kaplan said that the next mayor also needs to prioritize fixing the damaged roads.
M.J. Khan
M.J. Khan is a Sind University graduate with experience in business management and city government. He was elected three terms as a Houston City Council Member for District F., representing Sharpstown, Alief, Gulfton, and southwest Houston. As a city council member, he proposed “Zero-Based Budgeting” for city departments. He wants to decrease crime rates, make infrastructure cost-effective to fit the needs of the city, provide more support and resources to first responders, and build better connections with Austin and Washington.
Khan said he’d fight crime without raising taxes.
Sheila Jackson Lee
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee is the democratic Chief Deputy Whip for the U.S. House of Representatives. A Yale University graduate, she is the author and lead sponsor of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, which established the first new federal holiday in 38 years. Jackson Lee’s major legislative initiatives include the Sentencing Reform Act, the George Floyd Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act, The RAISE Act, The Fair Chance for Youth Act, the Kimberly Vaughan Firearm Safe Storage Act, Kaleif’s Law, the American RISING Act. She wants to work toward safer neighborhoods, better streets and an economy built around our working families.
David C. Lowy
David C. Lowy, who also considers himself to be the “fun” mayoral candidate, first campaigned for mayor in 1981.
As mayor, Lowy said he would drive the streets with Public Works twice a week looking to spot problems that citizens could call 311 to report, report them and keep track of progress on repairs. He would also visit with the homeless, along with representatives of homeless assistance agencies on a regular basis to see if his “Home in the Dome” program could work. The program would provide housing to homeless Houstonians in the Astrodome, he said.
Lowy wants to focus on water conservation, encouraging road safety and implementing city-wide “Extreme Weather Education” programs so that communities can learn various ways of effectively coping with heat, cold, and flooding.
Julian ‘Bemer’ Martinez
Julian Martinez is a businessman who attended the Delehanty Institute.
A native of Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, he immigrated to the United States in 1965 and moved to Houston shortly after marrying his wife in 1978. Today, Julian runs a multi-million-dollar car dealership and service center. Martinez wants to further his impact by providing required city services in a fiscally responsible way and communicating with all stakeholders and citizens.
Martinez believes Houstonians must have access to city data to understand the city’s overall impact on their everyday lives.
“I will create and or support any initiative for the city of Houston to open its doors and make its business apparent to all citizens,” his website says.
Chanel Mbala
Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1983, Chanel Mbala and his wife came to the United States in 2010. He is a graduate of Western Governor University and has had a 15-year career in IT.
Part of Mbala’s campaign focuses on safer and secure environments for all Houstonians by collaborating with law enforcement agencies. He also wants to prioritize improving roads, bridges, and public transportation to enhance connectivity and reduce congestion. Mbala said he would be committed to ensuring that comprehensive care and support are provided to the homeless.
By addressing these key issues, Mbala believes it will help create a better city.
Dr. Kathy Lee Tatum
Dr. Kathy Lee Tatum is the founder of a nonprofit called Collaborating Voices Foundation. She is passionate about domestic violence survivors, human trafficking victims, veterans services, re-entry programs, mental health wellness centers, and no-kill animal shelters.
Though Houston is one of the most diverse cities, on a Ballotpedia survey, Tatum said she feels it also has “a lot of segregation of resources” and she wants to see city council members “get what they need on the agenda and the funding to serve their districts without approval of the mayor.”
Roy Vasquez
Roy Vasquez is a University of Houston graduate and has worked in the realm of education for all of his adult working career.
Vasquez’s focuses are the homeless and unhoused citizens across the city, stray and sheltered animals, infrastructure as a result of vulnerability to flooding and extreme weather events, targeting human trafficking while helping victims, improving public school outcomes while partnering with universities for workforce development, and addressing crime while creating adaptive strategies.
Sen. John Whitmire
Sen. John Whitmire is the Dean of the Texas Senate and a University of Houston graduate. He was a long-serving chair of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and authored the Sandra Bland Act, addressing law enforcement training, jail resources, and support for individuals with mental illness, substance abuse, or intellectual differences. He also spearheaded grand jury reform, eliminating the “pick a pal” system and promoting diversity in panel selection. Additionally, he led efforts to decriminalize school behavior and expunged thousands of class C misdemeanors from the records of young Texans.
Robin Williams
Robin Williams is Bellevue University graduate and U.S. Marine Corps veteran whose professional experience includes working as a Missouri City law enforcement officer and working as a manager with the American Red Cross.
Williams desires to address plans to pass a citywide ordinance to generate affordable housing. She also wants to reconstruct the Houston Pothole tracker by making it more user-friendly. In addition, Williams wants to address mental health, saying that there are nearly 400,000 people who suffer from mental illness living in Harris County.
Williams wants to meet with the HISD board of education with the goal of advancing and improving education for all students. She also wants to collaborate with leaders from different cultures in hopes of strengthening international business relationships.
Election Day is Nov. 7. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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