Houston’s Mayoral Election: What to Expect In The Jackson Lee-Whitmire Runoff

US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee and Texas State Sen. John Whitmire will face a December runoff in Houston’s mayoral race.

Whitmire got 42.5% of votes while Jackson Lee got 35.6%. Houston’s rules demand that a candidate must have 50% of votes in order to be elected, as none of the 17 candidates got this percentage, Whitmire and Jackson Lee are headed to a runoff set for Dec. 9.

Jackson Lee has been a member of the House from Texas’s 18^th district since 1995. She served on the House Science Committee and is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Whitmire started his career in the Texas House of Representatives in 1972 as a bipartisan coalition builder.

Both candidates have led polls since summer, and with the runoff, the candidates could grow more combative. According to the Houston Chronicle, Jackson Lee has blamed Whitmire for a leaked audio recording that allegedly showed her scolding a staffer.

Recent polls suggest that Jackson Lee will come after Whitmire, as most Republican and independent voters have negative opinions of her. She is also at a financial disadvantage as Whitmire had $4 in the bank by the end of October and Jackson had $108,000, about 40 times more.

Still, we have to wait until December to know who will win the elections, there are a lot of factors that could drastically change the tides.