In a special election to fill the District C seat on the Houston City Council, seven candidates will appear on the ballot on April 4.
They’re running to replace Abbie Kamin, who’s stepping down to run for Harris County Attorney.
For some voters in the district, the race and its likely runoff will mark the fifth and sixth elections in the past six months. It will be the only item on the ballot for residents of District C, which stretches from the Greater Heights area through Montrose to Meyerland — a particularly left-leaning slice of the city.
“It definitely leans more progressive, although I would say there is a splash of moderates in the district,” said Renée Cross, executive director of the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs. “This particular district has a very high percentage of white voters … so, in terms of demographics, this district is very different.”
With higher affluence, educational attainment and home values, residents of District C are more likely to overcome voter fatigue, Cross said, because those factors “usually correlate to a much higher level of voter participation.”
In addition to voter fatigue, candidates face a challenge in standing out from a field of like-minded individuals. In interviews with Houston Public Media, five of the seven self-identified as progressives, while the other two leaned on their affiliations with the Democratic Party.
“Bottom line: it’s going to be hard for them to differentiate between each other,” Cross said.
In their interviews, the candidates spoke about their priorities for District C; the controversy around a local management board overhauled by Mayor John Whitmire; how they would approach their relationships with Whitmire, considering the substantial power he holds relative to district council members; and the city’s budgetary challenges, including whether to prioritize additional revenue or reduced expenses as a daunting deficit looms.
Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said the campaign is “a great race for policy wonks and political nerds.”
“How do they separate themselves out? There are really two ways to do that — the first is on issue emphasis, and the second is on endorsements,” he said. “They’re all looking for opportunities to find different coalitions that will support them and trying to find issues that are going to be the one thing that really grabs a particular kind of voter or a particular kind of group of voters.”
The city secretary said he had not yet received information from the legal department on the timeline for early voting or the likely runoff election.
Kamin — who easily won her second term in 2023 with about 73% of the vote in the general election — told Houston Public Media she had “not endorsed anyone yet.”
Macie Kelly / Houston Public Media
“Certainly an endorsement from her would be very, very coveted because obviously she’s very popular there,” Cross said.
We spoke with the candidates, analyzed available campaign finance reports and searched a public records database for legal histories.
Sophia Campos
Campos, an elementary school teacher, said she is running as a progressive candidate “because I’m a queer resident who’s living in this district and is experiencing the state overreach and the lack of response from city leadership.”
Among the challenges facing District C, she singled out the conditions at the Life at Jackson Square apartment complex. Located in the Meyerland area, the complex has been the subject of intense criticism from the current council member. Kamin raised concerns about widespread heating outages during the recent winter storm, among other issues, and said the city is pursuing a legal maneuver to shut down the property.
“I’m running because I really have the concern of what happens to the residents there now,” Campos said. “There’s no plan in place that I’ve heard of of how to rehouse these individuals that are living there. There’s no real understanding as to what is going to happen to them now, and it doesn’t work to address the conditions that they’re having to live in and the criminal negligence that has come about.”
Asked about Mayor John Whitmire’s decision to overhaul the management board of the Montrose Tax Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) — which controls a portion of property tax spending in part of District C, largely on infrastructure projects — and the subsequent removal of planned cyclist infrastructure from projects on Montrose Boulevard and Alabama Street, Campos said, “I can’t say that I know all the ins and outs of that issue, but that is something that I would turn my attention to to be able to understand what exactly is going about.”
When it comes to building a relationship with Whitmire — who holds significant power relative to district council members — Campos said she’s focused on “speaking honestly and frankly about the issues that are affecting Houstonians.”
“I would approach working with the mayor by maintaining honesty because at the end of the day, it would be the residents that are placing me into this seat and it would be important to bring these issues to the fore in a way that places firm root in taking that stance and allowing for those conversations to be frank and be honest,” she said. “I don’t believe in rolling back on stances or one’s position in order to maintain favorability — that’s not a beneficial outcome.”
She argued Whitmire has “lied” about the nature of the Houston Police Department’s coordination with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. While Whitmire has at times said there is “no interaction” between the local and federal law enforcement agencies, he has also acknowledged there is state-mandated cooperation in which HPD officers call ICE when they encounter individuals with an active immigration warrant.
As the city faces a ballooning budget deficit — projected to grow from $167 million this year to more than $500 million by the end of the decade if nothing changes — Campos argued the city council needs to tap into additional streams of revenue. She expressed support for a garbage fee and interest in a potential property tax hike. She also pointed out the Houston Police Department is the largest recipient of money from the city’s general fund, receiving $1.1 billion out of $3 billion.
“We have to be entertaining other revenue streams, otherwise we end up cutting services that are needed,” Campos said. “As far as the amount of money that goes to HPD … that cuts into those basic services that we need to also be maintaining so that the city can function just at a bare bones minimum. So, it’s not just revenue streams, but where we are allocating our money — it needs to be used more appropriately.”
Campos has not filed a campaign finance report with the city because the most recent reporting period preceded her entry into the race. She said her “fundraising goal is to be able to reach residents such as those in Life at Jackson Square and be able to turn out residents that are not being prioritized.”
According to a public records database, Campos was charged with numerous traffic violations from 2012 through 2016 — including a class A misdemeanor of driving with a blood-alcohol concentration level over .15% in Austin in 2012, when she was 19 years old. Travis County court records indicate she completed 80 hours of community service and served 18 months on community supervision.
During her interview with Houston Public Media, she described it as “a poor decision.”
“That incident itself was something that I addressed at the time, and I changed my behavior, you know, I did not have any other incident such as that one,” Campos said. “I think that we can’t have like perfection in any candidate, and what you’ll never see in my history is, you know, a history of pedophilia or corruption charges or bribery and theft — those are incredibly concerning — but as to that behavior itself, that’s something that I’ve changed and I can understand the gravity of that.”
If elected, Campos said, she would serve as a full-time council member without working an additional job.
Laura C. Gallier
Gallier, a retired accountant, is running as a progressive candidate.
She said the largest challenge facing District C is public safety, which she said her campaign is “reimagining … because it’s not just about crime.”
“People are concerned about basic city services, and they are couching those services in terms of safety,” Gallier said. “The hundreds of people I’ve spoken to who are talking about safety have not brought up crime as an issue. They have brought up not having proper lighting on their streets and dangerous infrastructure like sidewalks and roads, trash piling up in their neighborhoods or not being picked up on a regular basis, dogs that are running around without leashes — but it was interesting to me that all of these concerns were couched in terms of safety, which is actually what I’m running on.”
Asked about Mayor John Whitmire’s decision to overhaul the management board of the Montrose Tax Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) — which controls a portion of property tax spending in part of District C, largely on infrastructure projects — and the subsequent removal of planned cyclist infrastructure from projects on Montrose Boulevard and Alabama Street, she said, “I need to get up to speed on that.”
She said forming a relationship with Whitmire would be “essential.”
“He does have — not just by his personality or nature, but by the city charter — a great deal of power to do things with or without the consent of council,” Gallier said. “I have spent 40 years of my career working with and against people in very high positions of power in the IRS and other government agencies. There typically is a way for people on potentially opposing sides to see each other’s point of view and find a way that works for both of them.”
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She said it would be “complicated” to address the growing budget deficit “because we have a revenue cap (restricting property tax hikes) that was voted in by the voters about 20 years ago but we also have a ballooning law enforcement budget.”
“It seems to me that every time somebody says, ‘I am interested in feeling safer in Houston,’ the people in power think that means we need more police, and I disagree with that,” she said. “I would ask the police to stop making non-safety traffic stops and focus on solving murders, in particular for example in the bayou. I would ask them to start testing, doing forensic testing on rape kits — not giving them more money, rather, let them use the traffic cops that we don’t need to enforce expired registrations stickers. And then there would be money left for basic services that I’m hearing District C residents say that they are very interested in, and that’s what they’re going to be voting on.”
She is hesitant to increase property taxes or impose a garbage fee because of the city’s misappropriation of revenue intended for streets and drainage for general purpose expenses — the subject of a longstanding lawsuit settled by Whitmire’s administration last year.
“I would be in favor of some of these tax increases if I trusted the city to spend it for the things that the voters say they are voting on,” she said.
Gallier has not filed a campaign finance report with the city because the most recent reporting period preceded her entry into the race. She said her fundraising goal is $20,000.
A search of a public records database did not reveal any legal cases.
If elected, Gallier said, she would serve as a full-time city council member without working an additional job.
Nick Hellyar
Hellyar, a real estate business owner and former City Hall staffer, is running as a candidate associated with the Democratic Party. He declined to self-label as progressive or moderate.
He said District C faces multiple challenges.
“There’s always going to be the issue of public safety in District C — that’s usually number one,” he said. “Basic city services — trash getting picked up on time, roads and disrepair, heavy trash pickup — that’s been a massive issue in the south part of the district. And then it’s infrastructure, especially flood mitigation in Meyerland and Camp Logan areas. District C has been hit repeatedly with flooding over the years. So, those are the three issues that I think are going to be the biggest.”
Asked about Mayor John Whitmire’s decision to overhaul the management board of the Montrose Tax Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) — which controls a portion of property tax spending in part of District C, largely on infrastructure projects — and the subsequent removal of planned cyclist infrastructure from projects on Montrose Boulevard and Alabama Street, he said, “As a district council member, it would be my job to be the avenue from which the communities and the neighbors discuss what they would like to happen on those projects and then work with the mayor to help get done what the residents do.”
He referenced the contention among some residents who opposed the initial project designs because they narrowed car lanes and removed some trees.
“Sometimes in city politics we get stuck into you can either have one or the other,” he said. “I could have imagined widening the sidewalks and the paths on the side of Montrose without cutting down the trees and at the same time keeping the lanes of traffic the same. So, I do think it’s important that the administration speak with the community first.”
Hellyar said it’s “extremely important” to maintain a “working relationship” with Whitmire.
“Any district council member should consider the relationship with the administration a priority in order to get things done that are on the council member’s agenda and for those in the neighborhoods that have issues that they want to focus on,” he said.
He argued he’s uniquely positioned among the field of candidates to address the city’s budgetary headaches as costs associated with new contracts for police officers, firefighters, and city workers, along with the settlement of a lawsuit over spending on streets and drainage, balloon the projected deficit in the coming years.
“What we need to do is have an elected official for this district that understands the budget process, and I’m the only one that has any city hall experience working on city budgets,” Hellyar said. “The person that wins this seat (in April) is going to be put into office in the middle of the budget process (in May). I’m lucky to be endorsed by council member Sallie Alcorn, who’s chair of the budget and fiscal affairs committee, who runs the budget process through the council. And the relationships that I’ve built over the years with former mayors and council members and department directors is going to be a huge asset when it comes to ensuring that District C gets a voice at the budget process.”
When it comes to expenditures, he said he’s “somebody that understands the minutia of the budget to pick things out where we can save money that we see as an issue.”
“I’m a small business owner, so I understand what it is to balance a budget,” Hellyar said. “We don’t have enough money coming in right now to meet all of the city’s needs, so we’re going to have to make decisions on what to do.”
On the revenue side of the ledger, before making a decision on a potential garbage fee or property tax hike, he said he would “probably go on some listening tours” among District C residents.
“I’m there to advocate for them rather than kind of be the person that makes decisions,” he said. “I’m going to listen to what everybody has to say and support the residents of District C on that.”
At the end of the campaign finance reporting period from July through December 2025, Hellyar reported about $38,000 in his campaign coffers — $25,000 of which came from a loan to himself with no interest charged. Across 27 donations, the average contribution was about $560.
He previously ran for an at-large seat on the city council in 2023, clearing the six-candidate field for a runoff against Willie Davis, which he lost with about 45% of the vote. He also ran for an at-large seat in 2019, when he gained about 13% of the vote in the general election and failed to advance to the runoff.
A search of a public records database did not reveal any legal cases.
If elected, Hellyar said, he would serve as a full-time city council member without working an additional job.
Angelica Luna Kaufman
Kaufman, who has served in Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s office since 2024 as chief communications officer and chief of staff, is running as a candidate associated with the Democratic Party. She first joined Hidalgo’s office in 2022 before working on Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee’s 2023 campaign for Houston Mayor. She said her and Hidalgo — a prominent progressive — are “very aligned in our values and ideologies.”
She said the biggest challenges facing District C “are the biggest challenges facing all the districts in the city of Houston, the precincts in Harris County.”
“As we continue to grow and the needs continue to grow, we have to prioritize when we’re making some tough budget calls,” she said. “We are in a situation where many times we have to make some hard calls and to protect the projects — especially our flood projects and our flood drainage projects and things that we know we’re going to keep getting hit with year after year. So I think the biggest challenge is identifying what works and doesn’t work with the proven initiatives that we have in place, and to continue to fund them, and figuring out how we do so while still being responsible to the other needs that we face throughout our county and our city.”
Kaufman said she “didn’t agree” with Mayor John Whitmire’s decision to overhaul the management board of the Montrose Tax Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) — which controls a portion of property tax spending in part of District C, largely on infrastructure projects — and the subsequent removal of planned cyclist infrastructure from projects on Montrose Boulevard and Alabama Street. The projects are still slated to see drainage improvements as part of the work but were delayed by redesigns.
“I think that there are certain things that you cannot touch and you should not be messing with, and that is all based around our flood projects,” she said. “So any decisions around that need to be, I believe, more carefully thought out and considered, and the consequences need to be considered before those decisions are made in the way that they were made.”
Despite the frosty relationship between Whitmire and Hidalgo, Kaufman expressed confidence in her ability to build a working relationship with the mayor.
“Even though it’s been reported that the judge doesn’t have a great relationship with the mayor, on the staff level, we are working all day every day to be responsive to the constituents and the residents in Houston and in Harris County,” she said. “There are many times when people in office and people who are representing large segments of the population, regardless of if they agree on certain policies, they know that it’s important to work together to maintain and to sustain the environment and living conditions for people across the city.”
Justin Doud/Houston Public Media
She argued she’s well-qualified to tackle the city’s budgetary challenges because of her experience in county government. Harris County faced a $200 million gap last year, and the final budget saw substantial raises for deputies in the sheriff’s office and cuts for other departments, including libraries and public health. Hidalgo was one of two votes against the $2.8 billion budget that passed in September.
“I know the reality of being in the room and governing for residents, millions of residents — and it is having to make those tough calls, and it is looking to see how we’re going to maintain our hospital system, our public safety, and continue to fund our infrastructure projects in regards to our flooding projects,” she said. “When it comes to budgeting and how I would go about budgeting, I know it would be in the same way that we’ve approached it and continue to approach it. We have to look at data, we have to look to see what programs and policies are working, which are the most cost efficient, what can we afford to continue doing, where do we need to make the cuts.”
After most city departments — with the notable exception of police — saw significant funding cuts last year, Kaufman suggested there’s not much room for further trims.
“With the rate the city of Houston is growing and Harris County, you can only tighten it so much,” she said. “You have to look for other ways to budget and to finance the things that need to get financed. It will come from somewhere. It has to. As far as additional funding for law enforcement and for the fire department, again, that would be something where I would have to assess what the situation is once I’m in office and what my constituents would want since I would be representing District C. I do believe a top priority is public safety, and those fall under that category, but I also do believe that there are other ways that you can provide that public safety other than additional boots on the ground.”
She said she “would need to assess” a potential garbage fee and property tax hike.
“I know in District C, I can speak about that, because I’ve been on the ground talking to different civic club leaders and super neighborhood leaders and my own neighbors — a slight increase for them, they would be willing to pay it, understanding the constraints that are happening with the city of Houston budget if it would mean being able to continue with those services,” she said. “Again, though, these are all things that we would need to assess. I’m not in the position yet.”
Kaufman has not filed a campaign finance report with the city because the most recent reporting period ended before her entry into the race. She said she is “pacing well” toward a $100,000 goal before a fundraiser hosted by Hidalgo later this month, and she hopes to ultimately raise up to $175,000.
According to a public records database, Kaufman was charged with two traffic violations from 1998 through 2003 — including a class B misdemeanor of driving while intoxicated in Houston in 1998, when she was 27 years old. Harris County court records indicate she served one year on community supervision and paid a $600 fine.
During her interview with Houston Public Media, she declined to comment on the case. In a statement after the interview, she wrote, “It was a mistake I made in my 20s, 30 years ago. I took responsibility, learned from it, and have carried those lessons with me ever since.”
If elected, Kaufman said, she would serve as a full-time city council member without working an additional job.
Audrey Nath
Nath, a pediatric neurologist, is running as a progressive candidate.
Among the most daunting challenges facing District C, she pointed to a lack of pedestrian safety — which she described as “a public health problem” — and flooding, especially in Meyerland.
“I’m a mom, and my 7 and 9-year-old — they’re on their bikes, and we’re nearly daily on our bikes, on the sidewalks, biking over to the playground near us, and it needs to be safe — not just for my kids, but for everybody to bike and be outside and get to school,” she said.
When it comes to flood mitigation, she called out the recent allocation of $30 million in stormwater funding toward building demolition — a program proposed by Whitmire’s administration that narrowly passed the city council in a 9-7 vote.
“We all know climate change is here,” Nath said. “These floods are not just going to magically stop or get better. If anything, they’re likely to get worse, and I feel strongly that we need to fight to protect our flood funding and make sure it doesn’t get siphoned away to other causes.”
She disagreed with Mayor John Whitmire’s decision to overhaul the management board of the Montrose Tax Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) — which controls a portion of property tax spending in part of District C, largely on infrastructure projects — and the subsequent removal of planned cyclist infrastructure from projects on Montrose Boulevard and Alabama Street. Over the course of a year, he replaced all members of the seven-person board.
“I would like to have policies where an entire board cannot be replaced at once,” Nath said. “We need continuity of care in our city … so I would love to see a policy where no more than, let’s say, a quarter or a third of a board could ever be turned over at the same time. … You lose institutional knowledge, and it’s really hard to get that back.”
She described the Montrose Boulevard and Alabama Street project delays as “not fiscally responsible.”
Nath serves as co-chair of the Houston Progressive Caucus, which played a role in one of the most stinging political defeats suffered by Whitmire in his more than five decades in office — the Harris County Democratic Party’s decision in December to revoke his eligibility for the party’s endorsement. Still, Nath said, she would work to find “common ground” with Whitmire, who holds immense power relative to the district council members.
“I feel like I stand with a lot of the constituents in District C when I have spoken about the points of policy where I have disagreed with the mayor, and speaking with constituents and precinct chairs, I want to be their mouthpiece as well and speak for all of us with some of these things,” Nath said. “We don’t agree with delaying and redesigning projects that have already been approved and that wasted money. … At the same time, there is room to work together, and I think that we can start with projects that are high priority for both of us. It’s just like finding common ground in any sort of situation.”
On budgetary policy, Nath criticized the $3.3 million cut to the parks department budget last year — from about $92 million in 2025 to $89 million in the current fiscal year.
“I’m out with my kids at parks and playgrounds, and I think a lot of parents can relate when I say the way that I get my kids off of their iPads is by going to the playgrounds,” she said. “That cut in the park funding will affect how much security we have at our parks, and it does affect maintenance there, and I think this is something that affects all — a lot of Houstonians. For one, we need a place to go and find community. And studies have been done in other cities where when urban green space is improved, that crime and violent crime goes down.”
As the city grapples with a $127 million deficit this year, projected to balloon to more than $500 million by the end of the decade, Nath argued “there are some parts of the budget that have been expanded or bloated, and other parts of the budget have been decreased that are not in line with what we need.”
She called out the solid waste department — which saw an approximately $5.8 million cut last year — as a service for which the city should increase funding, especially given the more than 83,000 complaints to the 311 center about missed garbage, recycling or heavy trash pickup over the past 12 months. She expressed support for a monthly garbage fee, with the caveat that it needs to be “not burdensome to our lower income residents, by having a reduced fee for people who qualify.”
When it comes to property taxes, she said there needs to be a “long, hard discussion” about removing the voter-mandated cap on tax hikes — which has cost the city more than $2 billion over the past decade.
With the police and fire departments taking up about 58% of the $3 billion general fund budget, Nath said she “would not be further increasing those budgets.”
“We need to improve quality of life and do these things that are known to decrease crime in other ways for a more holistic approach to making our city safer,” she said.
As of the most recent campaign finance reports, Nath led the field in reported fundraising by a substantial amount — with the highest average gift size and in the shortest timespan.
After a short fundraising sprint from Dec. 15 through Dec. 31, Nath reported about $102,000 in her campaign coffers at the end of 2025. Excluding $30,000 Nath gave to her own campaign, the average contribution across 38 gifts was about $1,900. She said her goal is $200,000 to $250,000.
She previously challenged Houston ISD trustee Bridget Wade in the school board election last year, falling short with about 46% of the vote in November.
A search of a public records database did not reveal any legal cases.
Departing from the rest of the field, Nath said she would continue work unrelated to city government while serving as a council member.
“I am a very, very privileged person in that I have very flexible telemedicine work, and specifically it is reading EEGs — so this is like EKGs of the heart, but EEGs of the brain — remotely,” she said. “This is extremely flexible work that I can get done at different times, and because of that, I am able to devote my time to city council.”
Patrick Oathout
Oathout, a U.S. Army veteran now working on artificial intelligence safety, is running as a progressive candidate.
He said flooding, a lack of pedestrian safety and affordability are the biggest challenges facing District C.
“I survived (Hurricanes) Allison, Rita and Harvey — we were out without power for a week with Allison,” the lifelong District C resident said. “I’m emphasizing things I can start doing on day one that don’t require an ordinance or a budget to pass,” like creating a disaster response plan for the district.
He added he would “prioritize pedestrian safety first” when it comes to financial investments.
Oathout said affordability requires “making land build-ready, clearing up sidewalks and flooding hotspots, so developers can get in quickly — but also having community input in any discussions with developments we have because far too often we don’t involve the community in a productive way when we’re about to build something.”
Asked about Mayor John Whitmire’s decision to overhaul the management board of the Montrose Tax Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) — which controls a portion of property tax spending in part of District C, largely on infrastructure projects — and the subsequent removal of planned cyclist infrastructure from projects on Montrose Boulevard and Alabama Street, he described the situation as “a big waste of money, resources and time.”
“It’s incredibly frustrating when a community spends years putting together their heads on coming up with a plan, investing money in a plan, and then to have that all get ripped up and torn, pushed aside for a different philosophy in the city,” Oathout said. “I can respect that sometimes people have different priorities when it comes to mobility in a city, and we have to balance those, but I think it was a big waste of money, resources and time to totally throw in the bin a plan that the community had worked on for quite a while.”
Daisy Espinoza/Houston Public Media
When it comes to building a relationship with Whitmire, he said his role as a council member would be to “work with the mayor and produce the best outcomes for District C.”
“We live in this country together, we have to work together. I think we’ve lost this in 2026 where the incentives online push us to be self-righteous and scream at people and tell them why they’re bad or evil,” Oathout said. “I have experience on this on a number of issues. I grew up as an out gay man in Texas. I have dealt with a lot of people who are homophobic and don’t like who I am and judge me the moment I walk into a room. My sister’s trans — I’ve seen her deal with this. In the army, I dealt with the most prickly, old, homophobic generals, and I had to prove my worth through my actions. I’ve learned over and over again the way you convince people is not by calling them out and calling them stupid or bigoted or dumb in public — it’s about approaching them behind the scenes and working to influence.”
To address the ballooning budget deficit, projected to exceed $500 million by the end of the decade if nothing changes, he called for the creation of “a seven-year plan to getting to fiscal sustainability — and make sure we’ve, you know, reduced costs as much as we can before we go to taxpayers asking for more money from them.”
He said a garbage fee “makes sense” but wants to know “the details, the amount, the cadence” before making a decision. He opposed a property tax hike “until we’ve made sure we have reduced costs as much as we can efficiently and effectively in our budget.”
On the expense side of the ledger, he called for a shifting of priorities — especially around the solid waste department, which suffered a $5.8 million cut last year as the police department saw an increase of $38 million.
“I think solid waste is a huge issue right now, particularly as we swerve between different disasters and holidays,” Oathout said. “In terms of priorities when it comes to fiscal sustainability, I wouldn’t have prioritized, you know, the police department and the firefighters first. I think there’s other things that are worth spending money on, and those wouldn’t have been my first choices on what to not cut.”
As of the conclusion of the campaign finance reporting period from July through December 2025, Oathout had about $82,000 in his campaign chest — about $50,000 of which came as loans from himself with no interest charged. Excluding $35 he gave to his own campaign, the average contribution across 87 gifts was about $400. He said his goal is $300,000.
A search of a public records database did not reveal any legal cases.
If elected, Oathout said, he would serve as a full-time city council member.
Joe Panzarella
Panzarella, a community organizer and renewable energy developer, is running as a progressive candidate “because I love Houston, I believe deeply in the potential of Houston, but it can be hard to live in the city, and I want to make it easier for everyone — and our roads are too dangerous.”
He said the biggest challenges facing District C are dangerous streets, a lack of affordability and climate change.
“Our roads are designed in a way that encourage speeding, that encourage rash decision making, and it endangers pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike,” he said. “I really want to run and be on council to help change the culture at City Hall that emphasizes multimodal use, that emphasizes livability and walkability and bikeability in all these different ways to get around District C.”
He also said “it is getting too expensive to live in this city,” pledging to “cut red tape and change some of those form-based codes at City Hall to make it easier to develop mixed-use, affordable housing.”
Panzarella acknowledged climate change is “a little bit more long-term and abstract” as a challenge facing the district.
“Summers are getting hotter. Hurricane seasons are getting longer,” he said. “We have to build in a sustainable way that is able to manage those kinds of climate issues that are — they’re going to happen.”
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Panzarella said he “didn’t approve of” Mayor John Whitmire’s decision to overhaul the management board of the Montrose Tax Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) — which controls a portion of property tax spending in part of District C, largely on infrastructure projects — and the subsequent removal of planned cyclist infrastructure from projects on Montrose Boulevard and Alabama Street.
“That was a difficult situation because those projects had federal funding, and they had support from the community, and I think this administration put their thumb on the scale,” he said. “I think it’s really important to focus on multimodal accessibility, to focus on narrowing lanes to reduce speeds of cars, and if elected to city council, my entire focus will be on the safety of Houstonians — and how those projects were originally designed to put a greater emphasis on the safety of Houstonians.”
Still, Panzarella said, he believes Whitmire “deeply cares about this city, and he does care about Houstonians, and he wants what’s best for Houstonians.”
“It’s important to create a dialogue and collaborate with the mayor to bring forth the best policies for Houstonians and District C,” Panzarella said. “We might just disagree on the best policy for District C. I think a great example is my work with (advocacy group) No Higher No Wider I-10. As an individual, it would have been really difficult to get (the Texas Department of Transportation) out to the table to redesign this project for the best of District C. But when we were able to rally all of the neighborhoods and all of the individuals along the I-10 corridor, it kind of forced TxDOT to come to the table and talk about what was best for us. The same thing has to happen with this administration.”
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When it comes to the city’s financial challenges, he said city officials are “going to have to bring in more revenue to fund the city,” and he does not support cutting services — “especially in a time when the federal and state government are already doing that.”
“They’re already cutting budgets towards really critical services, and so, for me, it’s going to be really important to find a way to bring in more revenue,” Panzarella added. “I’d like to develop a lot more housing, a lot more mixed-use commercial things, to bring in more sales tax, more property tax — but at some point we’re going to have to talk about raising (the voter-imposed cap on property tax revenue) as well.”
He said he is “not fully convinced” that a garbage fee is worth supporting because it’s “a little bit of a regressive tax.”
He reiterated his opposition to cutting city services.
“My focus for now is more so on the revenue side, but I will say it’s really important that we’re able to have a respectful but serious conversation about how much money is going towards police and fire,” he said. “At the end of the day, they get over 50% of both the city and county budgets. They’re doing a great job, and they’re doing amazing work — but from a budgeting perspective, we need to understand — is that the best use of our funds?”
“If we continue to raise their budgets, we’re kind of locking ourselves in,” he added, “and Houstonians rely on all of the services that the city is providing — not just police and fire. And again, police and fire are doing amazing work, and they’re doing an amazing job, but we need to have a really frank conversation on if over 50% of our budget needs to be going to two very specific departments.”
Panzarella led the pack in the total number of reported political contributions — with the lowest average gift size.
At the end of the campaign finance reporting period from Oct. 24 through Dec. 31, 2025, Panzarella had about $26,000 in his campaign chest. Excluding $3,550 he gave to his own campaign, the average contribution across 336 gifts was about $75.
He also reported $5,000 worth of pro bono marketing and communication services from a Houston-based marketing manager.
According to a public records database, the street safety enthusiast was charged with a class C misdemeanor for speeding on a state highway in Austin in 2013, when he was 19 years old. The database indicates he completed a driving safety course, and the case record is not available on the city of Austin’s municipal court website.
During his interview with Houston Public Media, Panzarella said, “I think I was going 10 (mph) over.”
“I had just gotten paid and I had, you know, some money in my bank account — and then on my way to buy something I got the speeding ticket, and my paycheck went all the way there,” he said.
If elected, Panzarella said, he would serve as a full-time city council member.
Great Job & the Team @ Houston Public Media for sharing this story.
