On Monday, former Houston City Council member Sue Lovell announced her entry into the Houston Mayor’s race. Her entry could shake up the race, opening up the possibility of a run-off.
Lovell, who served on the council between 2006 and 2012, will join four other major candidates vying for the office, including Mayor Sylvester Turner, Council Member Dwight Boykins, attorney Tony Buzbee, and businessman Bill King.
“Now, more than ever, our citizens trust that public safety will be a priority, that the services they pay for will be delivered efficiently and on time, and that there will be an investment in the city’s infrastructure and their quality of life,” Lovell said in a statement announcing her run.
The Texas Signal previewed Lovell’s likely campaign last week.
She is a former three-term council member at large, vice mayor pro tem, and small business owner. She was the first female president of the Houston GLBT Political Caucus and first LGBTQ Texan to be elected to the State Democratic Executive Committee, and then to the Democratic National Committee.
“The most prominent impact is that it further fragments the mayoral field and lowers the threshold needed to enter a runoff,” Mark Jones, a Rice University political science professor told the Texas Signal.
Jones theorized that this year’s mayoral race had so many candidates because of the longer term limits for elected Houston officials, which changed from two to four years in 2015. The race remains Turner’s to lose at this point.
