John Whitmire Sworn in as Houston Mayor

There is a new Democrat in charge of Houston, but we should all be happy it is not Sheila Jackson Lee, who everyone thought was about as close to a guaranteed winner as it gets.

As it turned out, Lee lost to John Whitmire by just shy of 20,000 votes.

Whitmire ran on a tough-on-crime platform, which is apparently what Houston residents wanted to see.

Lock Them Up

Houston has not had a Republican mayor since Jim McConn held the post from 1978 to 1982.

Over the last two decades, we have seen violent crime rates spike several times to some pretty scary numbers, which is what Whitmire hopes to turn around.

After being sworn in, relieving Sylvester Turner of his duties, he stated, “I’m excited for the city of Houston. We’ve worked hard for two years.

“To explain our vision for the city of Houston, it’s to have total transparency, to share with Houston what I see as a mayor. We have a great city, great people, and we need to do everything we can to see that Houston goes forward and even becomes greater.”

Whitmire started his political career as a member of the Texas House of Representatives in 1973, then moved up to the Senate in 1983, serving his last day on December 31, 2023, to accept the position of Mayor of Houston.

Whitmire made public safety his number one platform issue, and he hit the streets with Chief Finner not long after taking his oath.

When he was asked what voters could take from that, he stated, “We’ve got some serious issues with public safety. We need additional officers. I’ll go ahead and announce tonight that the chief has already done an outstanding job of following one of my commitments to a collaborative effort.

“We’re going to meet Thursday morning at 10:00 [a.m.] with area chiefs to see how we can divide the city where no community goes unprotected.”

He may be a Democrat, but I truly wish him luck in fixing Houston’s crime issues and hope he can turn that city around. It is, after all, part of my home state, and above all else, I would love for my fellow Texans in Houston to be safe.

Now we just need to do something about the city of Austin, which Democrats have turned into a hot mess.