State Sen. John Whitmire will be the next mayor of Houston.
On Saturday night, voters elected Whitmire as Houston’s next elected leader. Whitmire defeated U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee for the position, winning 65 percent of the vote, as of press time. Whitmire, a Democrat, was backed by a bipartisan coalition of Houston voters who sought to elect a candidate focused on tackling crime, among other issues.
Whitmire and Jackson Lee advanced to a runoff from the November election after neither candidate secured 50 percent of the vote. Now that Whitmire has won the race, he will succeed incumbent Mayor Sylvester Turner to become the city’s 63rd mayor.