Looking Back At Other Times Council Members Ran for Mayor

Ad for Commissioner L. O’Brein Thompson’s failed campaign to oust incumbent Mayor J. Earnest Stroud | Archived copy of the Amarillo Daily News via the Amarillo Public Library

In this year’s May 6th election, two of the six candidates asking voters for Amarillo’s highest office are currently serving as members of Amarillo City Council. Cole Stanley has served in Place 1 since 2021, while Freda Powell has served in Place 2 since 2017. Technically, this is the first time in Amarillo history that a member of the council has sought to become mayor, but that’s only because of a technicality: for most of Amarillo’s history, the decision making body at City Hall had been called the Amarillo City Commission.

So, how often did commissioners seek a promotion? The first record we could find was in 1941, when Joe A. Jenkins, the incumbent Place 1 commissioner, defeated Fancher Upshaw in an open race for mayor. A little over a decade later, Place 2 Commissioner S. T. Curtis repeated this feat, defeating Bob Dowell in a two-way race. For both of these elections, Amarillo only had a mayor and two commissioners.

In 1955, the first election featuring 4 commissioners, both of the incumbents from the old two person commission battled eachother in the open race for mayor. In the end, Place 2 Commissioner Fancher Upshaw lost another bid to become mayor to Place 1 Commissioner R. C. Jordan. Two years later, Place 2 Commissioner John Armstrong won the mayoral election in an open race. In 1967, Place 4 Commissioner Jack Seale became the first member of one of the new council places to run for mayor, and he won a narrow victory in that year’s open race. History was made yet again the next time a commissioner ran for mayor, as 1969 saw Place 1 Commissioner L. O’Brien Thompson lose his bid to unseat incumbent Mayor J. Earnest Stroud. Stroud wasn’t as lucky in 1971 though, as he was ousted by Place 4 Commissioner L. Ray Vahue. Then, in 1975, Place 3 Commissioner Houston “Dee” Deford was defeated by John C. Drummond, making the first time a commissioner lost to a non-incumbent. Drummond would then be unseated by Place 2 Commissioner Jerry Hodge in the next election.

It would then be more than a decade before another commissioner ran for mayor. When it finally happened again in 1989, Place 4 Commissioner Keith Adams defeated incumbent Glen Parkey. In 1993, Place 3 Commissioner Kel Seliger won an open race to become Mayor. The most recent time an incumbent commissioner ran for Mayor was in 2001, when Place 4 Commissioner Trent Sisemore was elected to his first term.

In total, 13 members of Amarillo City Commission have run for Mayor of Amarillo. Of those, only 3 have lost. One lost to another commissioner in an open race, one lost to an incumbent mayor, and one was defeated by a non-incumbent.