John Whitmire, a moderate Democrat, wins the runoff for mayor of Houston

John Whitmire, a moderate Democrat who has served in the Texas Senate since 1983, won the runoff election to become mayor of Houston on Saturday, according to The Associated Press. He defeated Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a prominent Democrat in Congress, in the nonpartisan race. .

Mr. Whitmire was considered a front-runner from the moment he entered the race last year and prevailed in a city known for its diversity by creating a coalition that included Republicans and moderate white Democrats, as well as Latinx -American and Asian voters.

He made public safety the focus of his messaging, following a strategy that has proven successful for moderate Democrats in recent mayoral races in major cities across the country.

Ms. Jackson Lee, 73, a veteran lawmaker who was first elected to Congress in the 1990s, entered the race in March with strong support from many Democrats and black voters but struggled to get a message across and expand its support base.

Many Houstonians already knew Ms. Jackson Lee from her years in Congress, her penchant for the spotlight and her reputation for being tough on staff. Before the first round of voting, a University of Houston survey found that 43 percent of respondents said they would never consider voting for her, compared with 15 percent for Mr. Whitmire.

Ms. Jackson Lee received support from prominent Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, who came to Houston to endorse the candidate, and local leaders, such as outgoing Mayor Sylvester Turner and District Judge Lina Hidalgo. Ms. Jackson Lee was doing much better with Democrats than Mr. Whitmire before the vote.

But he appealed more to Republicans and independents, who had nowhere else to turn for a nonpartisan runoff election without a Republican candidate.

Voters appeared to be divided along stark racial lines, with Black Houstonians backing Ms. Jackson Lee by wide margins and white residents backing Mr. Whitmire. Race became an issue at certain points late in the campaign.

In one of their head-to-head debates, Mr. Whitmire said the city needed to do more to encourage diversity in top positions, saying too few of the top jobs were going to Latin American or Asian people. Many of the city’s top officials, including Mr. Turner, are black. Mr Turner said Mr Whitmire’s comments amounted to a racist “dog whistle”.

Mr. Whitmire focused on crime as his central message, as did outside groups who flooded mailboxes with fliers attacking Ms. Jackson Lee for not supporting police enough.

Despite police statistics showing crime declining from post-pandemic peaks, Mr. Whitmire said crime rates were still too high and Houstonians remained fearful. He pledged to work with the administration of Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, to bring 200 state troopers to the city for patrols. A similar attempt by city leaders in Austin to cooperate with state troopers failed amid allegations of racial profiling and aggressive police enforcement.

Mr Whitmire, 74, had a significant fundraising advantage, transferring millions from a campaign war chest amassed during his time in the Senate, as well as by raising money from prominent Republican donors.

A lifelong Democrat, Whitmire received Republican support from the start of the race, while also drawing support from groups like the AFL-CIO. He ignored questions about past conflicts of interest related to his work as a lawyer for a firm that also had clients who lobbied state government.

Both candidates struggled to energize voters in what has historically been a low-turnout race. Just under 132,000 people cast early votes, similar to other recent mayoral races, in a city of 2.3 million.

Some analysts said Ms. Jackson Lee may have entered the race too late.

“I’m not sure she had the time” to form a coalition, said Mustafa Tameez, who ran successful campaigns for former Houston Mayor Bill White. “And Whitmire ran a pretty flawless campaign.”

Mr. Tameez added that despite favoring Democrats in statewide and national elections, Houston voters are more centrist than those in other major cities. “We are not San Francisco, we are not New York,” he said. “Texas Democrats will always be different.”