Deborah Peoples
Mayor Betsy Price has competition.
Democrat Deborah Peoples announced Tuesday night she is running for mayor in Fort Worth.
As Peoples addressed a crowd of several hundred people at 6 p.m., the back room of Angelo’s BBQ slowly became louder and louder. By the time Peoples arrived at the peak of her speech, the room was in an uproar.
“I believe it’s time. Time to stand up for Fort Worth, and time to stand up for each other,” she said to applause. “We have one chance to get this right. And we need a mayor who will stand up for all of us.”
The crowd started to chant, “it’s time” as Peoples continued.
“I am Deborah Peoples and I am running for Mayor of the City of Fort Worth,” she concluded.
Peoples was born in Texas and, 43 years ago, started working in Fort Worth’s Human Relations Commission. She said the work taught her the importance of keeping city government accountable to its residents.
Peoples has been the Tarrant County Democratic Party chair since 2013. Before that, she was a vice president for AT&T for 33 years.
“Many people do not feel like leadership listens to them,” Peoples said in an interview. “You have to have vision to be a leader. And I think in Fort Worth, we have been kind of lumbering from crisis to crisis.”
This is a May election, so things are already in full swing. Democrats made a lot of gains in 2018, winning in places they hadn’t won in years. In some ways, Beto O’Rourke carrying Tarrant County was the biggest psychological blow to the Republican identity, because Tarrant had long been the exception among the big urban counties. Winning the Fort Worth Mayor’s race, with the former Chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party against the four-term Republican Mayor, would be another big dent. Price has won four two-year terms, so she’s going to be tough to beat, but this sure seems like a year where it could happen. Daily Kos has more.
Kamala Harris announces run for President in front of 20K people at an outdoor rally in Oakland.
Betsy Price announces a run for FtW Mayor in front of a couple hundred folks in the backroom of a local BBQ restaurant.
Can’t get any more quintessential Texas than that !
It was a good weekend.