Amarillo Voters Pick Craft & Simpson in Runoff Election

Graphic by The Amarillo Pioneer/Candidate photos via respective campaigns

Amarillo voters finished filling out the new city council during Saturday’s runoff election. Firefighter Josh Craft will fill the currently vacant Place 1, while former Amarillo Globe-News publisher Les Simpson will replace retiring councilman Howard Smith in Place 4.

The two candidates got nearly identical vote totals, with both winners earning just over 60%. In fact, according to unofficial results, Les Simpson earned 9 more votes than Craft.

While they both won their races, on the surface, Simpson and Craft seem to be very different candidates. Craft is a political newcomer, while Les Simpson has a history of involvement in the controversial downtown revitalization program and the Amarillo Globe-News.

In fact, while Simpson was serving as publisher of the Amarillo Globe-News, the paper endorsed Ginger Nelson during her first mayoral campaign in 2017. Nelson won that election, though her time in office was fraught with controversy. While she did not run for reelection in this year’s election, Freda Powell, who had been a key ally of Nelson on the council and was widely seen as her successor, was defeated while Cole Stanley, a vocal critic of many of Nelson’s policies, won in a historic landslide. Though Simpson attempted to distance himself from the Nelson administration during his campaign, he stated during a forum held by The Amarillo Pioneer that he did not regret the paper’s endorsement of the former mayor.

On some level, it seems Les Simpson seems to have had more in common with Josh Craft’s opponent Dean Crump than he had with his soon-to-be councilmate. According to campaign finance reports, Simpson and Crump had many overlapping donors, several of whom also had ties to the controversial Amarillo Matters PAC.

Despite the differences between Craft and Simpson, there was one major factor uniting the two candidates: businessman Alex Fairly. Fairly, who supported not only both Craft and Simpson but also all of the other winners from this year’s city election, became a leading voice in Amarillo politics last year when he successfully sued the City of Amarillo to halt an attempt to issue tax anticipation notes to fund renovations to the Amarillo Civic Center Complex.

Aside from Fairly’s support, there were a few other factors linking Craft and Simpson. Both candidates utilized NoBox Creative as their campaign consultants. Both of them also had endorsements from Congressman Ronny Jackson, the conservative Defend Texas Liberty PAC, and the local Conservative Patriots 4 Texas group.

Both winners are expected to be sworn in during the upcoming July 5th special meeting of Amarillo City Council.

Click here to see the full election results.