There were a handful of runoff elections following the November 5…whatever you want to call it. This was the most consequential of the local races.
Charles Johnson
Charles Johnson, who served as District 3 city councilman from 2017 until 2023, has come back to win the top seat in Baytown and will become its next mayor as well as its first-ever Black mayor.
The total combined number of votes from both Harris and Chambers Counties, including early and Election Day votes, show Johnson with 1,230 votes. The combined total shows Capetillo with 1,024 votes.
With 41 of 42 voting centers reporting in Harris County, Johnson has 1,153 votes to incumbent Mayor Brandon Capetillo’s 946, according to www.harrisvotes.org.
The mayoral election is a joint endeavor between Harris and Chambers Counties.
I was told at the recent HCDP County Executive Committee meeting that Johnson is a Democrat, which would be an extra bit of accomplishment in this Republican area. I can’t confirm that from any of the websurfing I’ve done, but that’s what I was told. I’ve been wanting to post about this since the runoff, to see if there would be something else written about the race and Mayor-elect Johnson besides this extremely limited recap, but there’s just been nothing. The most interesting result I get via news search is this NPR story from 2017 following Johnson’s first election to Baytown City Council, in which he was given some advice for being a Council member by a more experienced politician. I know Baytown is small and we’re all paying attention to a million other things, but still. Anyway, congratulations to Mayor-elect Johnson. In addition to everything else, he beat an incumbent Mayor, which those who aren’t too fond of their current Mayor might find inspiring.
WHICH RACES MATTER
So we don’t even know for sure that Mr. Johnson is a Democrat, what with voter registration and city elections in Texas being nonpartisan. The only readily apparent person-specific distinction is that this office seeker is black. And that feature apparently makes Mr. Johnson “consequential”. Is that all that matters? Seriously?
In the bigger scheme of things, will we ever get beyond the race mongering?
If you see me in the company of a black lady around town, please don’t report me, or on me/us. Statistically, she is likely a Democrat too. Even more so than Johnson, given the gender gap in the recent election.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardfowler/2024/12/17/black-male-voters-and-the-2024-election-what-went-wrong-what-comes-next/
I would respectfully suggest that each human being is unique, and that there is necessarily more there than skin color/assigned race classification. And how they voted in the last elections for that matter (if they did).
Wolfie, I don’t see anything in Kuff’s post that even remotely references or alludes to this guy’s race.
Don’t racebait me.
C.L., a picture is worth at least a thousand words; that photo sure did look like it belonged to a person darker in color.
Beating an incumbent is consequential.
Manny, my picture may ultimately reflect me being a person ‘darker in color’, but that didn’t have anything to do with the post, or alluded to in the post or the Baytown News article.
“The articles says “first-ever Black mayor.”
Two questions:
1. Generally speaking, is it a personal accomplishment to be born black (or white, or pink)?
(If so, shouldn’t the credit go to the womb-owning person (p/k/a mother in Oldspeak) who assumed the burdens and pains (if not pleasure) of pregnancy and birthing?)
2. If the only reason this story was published is the “blackness” of the successful candidate (do you see anything else about the individual’s attributes and, specifically, qualities?), why is this newsworthy?
… Because blacks are assumed to be unelectible, but here we have a unicorn? — If so, what does that say about the media and its readers? … Sounds like racist prejudice, doesn’t it? Low expectations based on the individual’s racial classification. Nothing else mattering.
OK, CL, you win. That photo was of a white man who looked different from most.