The Clapper is heading back to City Hall.
On Friday, Kip Billups filed to run for mayor against incumbent Ginger Nelson and paralegal Claudette Smith. Billups, founder of Amarillo Brown Bag Runs, will be having another run in with Nelson, after being arrested in a highly-publicized incident during a 2018 City Council meeting, in which he refused to obey Nelson’s orders to stand in a meeting. Billups’ applause during public comment triggered that series of events.
Billups’ entry into the race marks the second straight year that Amarillo will have a three-person mayoral contest. In 2017, Nelson handily defeated archivist Renea Dauntes and cybersecurity auditor Jim Lowder, II. In 2015, Paul Harpole won re-election as Amarillo mayor, while facing just one candidate, Roy D. McDowell.
Voters will decide the mayoral contest on May 4th.
Billups being arrested during a protest at City Hall in March 2018
Photo by Susan Cooper Bailey