Mayors of some of the largest cities in Texas face no opposition in May re-elections.

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The mayors of some of the largest cities in Texas are seeking re-election.

Incumbents in San Antonio and Fort Worth are facing little resistance after the deadline to run for mayor in the May 6 election expired on Friday. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has no rivals.

This is a political boon for mayors. But for nearly 3.7 million residents, there will be no real choice in May’s mayoral elections or high-profile debates about the future of their cities as their regions experience explosive growth and deal with the associated housing, transportation and policing challenges. Texas municipal elections often see low turnout, a trend that is likely to worsen this year without competition at the top of the list.

A similar story will play out in Arlington, the seventh most populous city in Texas, where Mayor Jim Ross has only one challenger in May.

Texas’ blockbuster mayoral race of the year will take place in November when Houston voters elect a new leader for the state’s most populous city. Incumbent Sylvester Turner’s term is limited, and several credible candidates have announced plans to run for the open seat, with Democratic Senator John Whitmire considered the frontrunner.

Municipal offices in Texas are non-partisan, and mayors often try to govern in this way, but they can bring in political motives that color their work. Johnson is a former Democratic member of the Texas House, and Fort Worth Mayor Matty Parker has identified herself as a Republican, though she has expressed disappointment with the current state of the Republican Party.

Johnson, Parker, and San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg have navigated strong political controversies in their backyards in recent years. Last year, Tarrant County, where Fort Worth is located, elected a new leader who promised to lead the county in a more conservative direction than the Republican he replaced. And in San Antonio, Nirenberg reigned amid a gradual renaissance of the city, with two members of the Democratic Socialists of America winning city council seats in 2021.

Goodwill for Nirenberg in San Antonio

Nirenberg is likely to win an easy victory in his fourth and final two-year term as no serious challenger has emerged.

“Overwhelmingly, what we see is that people think San Antonio is on the right track,” Nirenberg campaign manager James Aldrete said.

This is a far cry from four years ago, when Nirenberg narrowly defeated Greg Brockhouse, the more conservative city council member.

But in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nirenberg has built a calm and competent public profile, appearing on late-night television briefings alongside then Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolf to educate residents about the local spread of the virus as well as local officials. efforts to control the subsequent spread of the virus.

Nirenberg has tightened his grip on the ballot box during the pandemic. In November 2020, three-quarters of the city’s voters approved Nirenberg’s plan to use a $154 million sales tax on vocational training and higher education, an attempt to open better paying jobs for the city’s low-skilled workforce.

Now, there seems to be little room to the right of Nirenberg for viable competition. Two years after Brockhaus nearly took over as mayor, Nirenberg beat Brockhaus again in May 2021 – this time by 30 percentage points. Last year, voters in overlapping Bexar County—a slightly more conservative jurisdiction—strongly rejected Republican candidates who thought they stood a chance amid a favorable national landscape.

To some extent, Nirenberg still lives off the goodwill he cultivated among voters during the pandemic, according to local Democrat consultant Laura Barberin. Those who may have been inclined to challenge him this year probably don’t see the point in raising the huge amounts of money needed to fight the incumbent, especially as he approaches his final term. If he is re-elected in May, Nirenberg will receive a maximum of four two-year terms that San Antonio’s mayor can elect.

“It doesn’t make sense to challenge him now that he really only has two years left,” Barberena said.

Much of the drama in San Antonio’s May election revolves around some controversial city council races, as well as referendums on abortion, marijuana decriminalization, and police reform. Nirenberg declined to take a position on the latter, although he told the San Antonio Report he agreed with the spirit of “much of what is in the petition.”

There are no contenders in Dallas

In Dallas, Johnson is running for a second four-year term without a single challenger. One applicant applied at the last minute on Friday – J.R. Jefferson, a former Democratic congressional candidate in East Texas – but he did not qualify to vote.

Johnson’s campaign said it was the first time a person had run unopposed for mayor of Dallas since 1967.

“It is the greatest honor of my life to be mayor of my hometown,” Johnson said in a statement. “We have made significant, measurable results for the people of Dallas over the past four years, and I look forward to continuing this incredible progress during my second term.”

It was not always decided that Johnson would be re-elected. He clashed with some city council members and openly supported their challengers in the 2021 election. He pushed for more funding for the police and defiantly rejected the “defend the police” movement at a time when some of his Democratic colleagues are more critical of law enforcement than ever.

Johnson left little to chance and blocked many early approvals, including from the city’s police union, as well as powerful business leaders who played a key role in his first election. And by the end of last year, he was boasting a battle chest worth more than $1.2 million, a lot for a mayoral contest.

When Michael Hinojosa announced in early 2022 that he was stepping down as superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District, many believed he was preparing to challenge Johnson. But late last year, he announced he would not run, telling The Dallas Morning News that Johnson “became a better mayor.”

“I think [Johnson]in a good position now, but a year ago it definitely wasn’t,” said Vinnie Mincillo, a Republican consultant in Dallas. “He kind of reinvented himself and really made a difference.”

Probable victory for Parker in Fort Worth

Months after Tarrant County signaled a strong Conservative shift, Parker appears to be running for a second two-year term without a well-funded challenger from either the right or the left.

“Fort Worth continues to be a place where we avoid guerrilla fighting and focus on what really matters,” Parker said in a statement. “Prioritizing public safety and investing in infrastructure to support our explosive growth are the reasons Fort Worth is a world-class city. I look forward to continuing to work with our city council and all Fort Worth residents to build a stronger and safer Fort Worth and make sure we leave this place better than we found it.”

[Watch: Fort Worth’s Republican mayor criticizes GOP, pushes for Medicaid expansion and defends trans kids]

Parker, the only Republican to lead Texas’s largest cities, found herself increasingly frustrated with her party last year, going so far as to say, “I couldn’t run in the Republican primary because I just couldn’t look at myself in the mirror. and do it.”

At the time, her predecessor and mentor Betsy Price — part of the county’s tradition of moderate, business-friendly Republicans — lost the GOP’s primary bid for Tarrant County judge to Tim O’Hara, who had the backing of former President Donald Trump and gained a reputation as a conservative firebrand.

In contrast to Republicans’ broader attacks on transgender people, Parker has defended transgender children and their families as the state has pushed to label some parents of transgender youth as rapists.

It’s likely that potential applicants, looking at the city’s booming job growth, see the re-election fight against Parker as a tough uphill battle, said Brian Mays, a Fort Worth consultant who has worked for Price and Parker. Municipal voters also tend to be older, more educated, and less concerned with partisan politics, making things harder for any candidate who would challenge the integrity of Parker’s conservatives.

“They don’t like the partisan bullshit that some of these far left or far right candidates are using,” Mace said.

Deborah Peoples, a Democrat who lost to Parker in the runoff in June 2021 and O’Hara in November, has an alternative theory.

“The far right should have been really mad at her, and she didn’t do anything to really piss them off,” Peoples said.

Parker also didn’t draw a serious opponent to her left. State Rep. Ramon Romero Jr., a Democrat from Fort Worth, is said to have launched a campaign to oust Parker, but told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he would not ultimately run against her, admitting “it’s going to be pretty hard on her.” win. ”

Democrats in Tarrant County were defeated in the November county elections, potentially dampening their enthusiasm for fighting Parker. Parker also has Fort Worth’s business class backing, which presents a major fundraising challenge for adversaries.

“I tell people if they’re passionate, they should run,” Peoples said. “But they are afraid because they don’t have money.”