Houston elected Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire as its next mayor on Saturday night, giving him a victory over U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) in a runoff.
Mr. Whitmire, 74, who is one of Texas’ most powerful Democratic legislators, will now be at the helm of America’s fourth-largest city. His campaign focused on reducing crime, improving streets and bringing people together. He heavily outspent Ms. Jackson Lee.
The congresswoman’s campaign also had to deal with fallout from the release in October of an unverified audio recording that purported to capture her profanely berating staff.
Mr. Whitmire built an insurmountable lead among early voters, winning among those voters by 30 percentage points….
