Houston Elects Mayor Sylvester Turner, Keeping Houston Liberal
The election results came in on December 12, 2015, to confirm that Houston has elected Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, into office. The results extend the tradition of keeping a left-wing politician as the mayor of one of Texas’ largest cities.
According to The Houston Chronicle, the election was close against Republican Bill King who conceded the win to Houston’s new mayor.
“This is obviously not the result we would have liked to have had, but I offered him my assistance in the very difficult challenges our city is facing, and I’d encourage all Houstonians to do the same, because we are facing some very trying times over the next couple years with our city government and he’s going to need our support in making sure we get the city back on the right track.”
The same source was the first one to break the story on the election via twitter.
@SylvesterTurner leading @BillKingForHou after early vote in the runoff race for Houston’s mayor https://t.co/y0Ga5mBU6D
— Houston Chronicle (@HoustonChron) December 13, 2015
The new Houston mayor credits those in Fort Bend who kept him in the lead the most.
One day before the final results, the Houston mayor announced on his Facebook page that he had President Obama’s endorsement.
President Barack Obama just announced his endorsement of our campaign. I’m honored to have his support and I encourage…
Posted by Sylvester Turner on Friday, December 11, 2015
Texas has been known to be mostly a conservative state whose Republican leadership has publicly taken a stand against the president. The Obama endorsement caused a lot of negative reaction through social media and from other right wing voters, such as one from a twitter account for a conservative radio producer named Ken Webster, Jr.
Houston: don’t forget, Sylvester Turner is Barack Obama’s candidate. Do we want that in Texas? https://t.co/aCpGhHsQW0
— Ken Webster Jr (@ProducerKen) December 12, 2015
Others comments on the Houston elect mayor’s announcement of the endorsement were even less cordial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v63-HNOjVJU
For a large city in a red state, many have questioned the reason why Houston hasn’t had a Republican mayor for three decades. The Christian Science Monitor tried to answer the question against the latest election results, showing that large cities in Texas tend to make the people more liberal.
Another popular city which has been in the news lately has been Chicago, which has Mayor Rahm Emanuel, another Democrat who was previously President Obama’s chief of staff. In an article published on the Inquisitr earlier this year, the city of Houston is reportedly competing with the windy city in size.
The latest on the Houston mayor-elect is from an interview with the Houston Chronicle to learn what Turner has in store for the city’s future.
In another report by ABC Houston affiliate 13 Eyewitness News, it was mentioned that the previous mayor, Annise Parker — the state’s first openly gay mayor — initially supported a bill supporting transgender rights, which the Inquisitr also wrote about, a bill she ended up rejecting in the end, stating that this was the reason support for her weakened.
The newly elected Houston mayor is mentioned that he is in support of repealing the ordinace that discriminates against transgender people, which had a lot to do with his win.
[Featured image from Facebook]
