This had been rumored for some time.
CM Dwight Boykins
Houston City Councilman Dwight Boykins has filed paperwork indicating he will run for mayor, setting up a clash with incumbent Sylvester Turner and at least two other major candidates.
Boykins filed a report Tuesday afternoon with the city secretary designating a campaign treasurer, a necessary step to raise funds.
He listed former Houston mayor Lee P. Brown as his campaign treasurer.
Boykins, who represents District D, has signaled for months that he was considering a mayoral bid; he had said he would decide by June whether to run for mayor or seek re-election to his council seat.
On Saturday, a website surfaced at the domain name dwightboykinsformayor.com that included a page allowing visitors to register for an announcement event. The site later was taken down.
Though once a political ally of Turner, Boykins has become increasingly combative with the mayor amid the city’s ongoing labor dispute with the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association.
Miya Shay has a photo of the paperwork on Twitter. I have three things to add at this time.
1. Nothing is final until the filing deadline passes. At this point in time in 2003, Michael Berry was a candidate for Mayor. He subsequently went back to running for Council. It seems quite likely Boykins will run at this point, but there’s still plenty of time for him to change his mind.
2. I’m kind of hard pressed to come up with an idea for what the Boykins for Mayor campaign will be about, other than “I promise to be nicer to the firefighters”. Which is fine, people can certainly think they deserve better than what they’ve gotten, but Prop B is now dead (pending appeal), and Boykins’ proposal to pay for it, which would have cost most homeowners something like $200 to $300 per year, maybe wouldn’t be all that popular. Some people like to talk about how Prop B passed with almost sixty percent of the vote. I wonder how it would have done if it had come with that price tag prominently displayed on it.
3. I know there are Democrats out there who are disappointed in Mayor Turner and who think he isn’t progressive enough. I would just like to remind them – and everyone else – that back in May of 2014 when City Council voted on HERO, Dwight Boykins voted “No”. He still refused to support HERO a year later when Council had to put the HERO repeal proposal on the ballot. I for one cannot and will not vote for anyone who didn’t support HERO. You do you, but that’s a deal breaker for me.
What if we were all one issue voters? Is it any different than someone that votes for Trump because of anti-abortion but dislikes everything else about Trump?
He ain’t Mexican therefore I will not vote for him.
He ain’t Catholic therefore I will not vote for him.
….
Boykins is a clown who has little to no record of anything to run on.
Well as far as HERO goes he voted just like the City of Houston voted which is a Democrat City. I was going to vote for Turner but if HERO is the voting point maybe I switch to Boykins.
The firefighters’ union just endorsed Boykins! That must be a real slap in the face to Tony Buzbee.
https://www.click2houston.com/news/hfd-union-endorses-dwight-boykins-for-mayor
Manny, I agree with you.
Sets up an odd race, where Anglos opposed to Trump and Hispanics will be the swing voters.
Boykins and King are homophobes who directly assist in protecting bigots who fire people for being LGBT. King and Buzbee are Trumpers.
I suspect Boykins’ financial support base will be Republicans seeking to use him as a stalking horse. I suspect the LGBT groups will have long memories about anyone giving to/endorsing Boykins so Democrats probably will be reluctant to publicly support Boykins.
The surprising thing is that Turner has done nothing to hammer Buzbee and King on their Trumpist support or Trumpian bases.
Finally, its no surprise that posters who clearly support discrimination against LGBT persons are likely to support the most anti gay candidate, which is Boykins.
Ignorant clown who likes seeing his name in the news.
Tom where is the proof that King and Boykins directly assist in protecting people that fire LGBT people?
What about when LGBT fire Heterosexuals for not being LGBT? Don’t you think that happens? More common is they hire only LGBT people. In my opinion the Houston LGBT community has been the most anti-Latino group in Harris County.
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Manny, both King and especially Boykins strongly campaigned for the legality of firing LGBT persons. That was what HERO was about. If it was just about bathrooms Boykins would have proposed a non bathroom HERO and King would have publicly supported it.
Do you have any evidence of any case of LGBT employment discrimination against Hispanics that dont advocate discrimination against the LGBT community?
Either way, I suspect that none of the challenger candidates really have any strong support in either the LGBT or Hispanic communities.
If you want to be a big international city than you need to act like one — Houston is the only major city in the United States (and in Texas for that matter) that does not have an inclusive sexual orientation policy. That is not only embarrassing but appalling — think GLOBALLY. We are being silently boycotted and that is not a good thing.
The rumor has been that Buzbee is paying Boykins to run.
That is not what HERO was about, Tom, you are just as good as any Trump supporters as changing the narrative to fit your position. Parker was told that if she changed the wording to make it bathroom only it would have passed, she chose not to do that. Parker was well known for choosing LGBT people over better qualified persons that were straight.
I did not say employment, politically.
Bill King did well last time in the Latino community, expect he will do so again. I have no idea what Turner has done for the Latino community that would endear them to him.
Manny, HERO was changed to exclude bathrooms.
If Hispanic Houstonians want to try their luck with Bill King, the favorite candidate of Trump supporters, thats their decision I suppose.
Oh, and Turner isnt much an advicate for the LGBTQ community either. For me at least, there is no candidate that I really support. But for people that dont want Republican leadership, the smart vote is for Turner.
You see Turner is term limited. He wont do anything for anyone, but if reelected there will be a chance to get someone better in there in 4 years in an open field.
Agree Turner is the least worst
Hell of a choice, I may go with none of the above.
No Tom, the way HERO was written not only did it include bathrooms, it included showers. So imagine a woman with a what looks like a naked male next to her. Is she suppose to say well it looks like a man but thinks it is a woman? Do they have stalls and doors in showers?
When one is ignored by all what difference does it make who is on the top ignoring one.
Every shower I’ve been in since high school has had a curtain or door, etc. Too date, I’ve never been too concerned with who or what is peeing next to me, or showering in the adjacent space. Maybe I’ve been lucky or blessed – my guess is though, however, the LGTBQ/space alien ‘threat’ relieving themselves next to me is a tad exaggerated.
I agree that the LGBT community is likely to consider Dwight’s position on HERO but what about the guy who gave them lip service in 2015 but has done nothing to put actual protections in place. Two candidates are being dinged for being against a proposal while another, who as Mayor is able to introduce his own visions of an ordinance to protect LGBT residents but has not, is getting a pass.
Oliver, a big, international city is also one in which the municipal government is able to fulfill its basic functions–pick up trash on time, control crime, protect its residents from flooding, etc. The candidate that drowns out the “noise” and focuses on issues that people who don’t read Kuff or other political blogs actually care about probably has a good chance.
It doesn’t take an astute Brandon Rottinghaus observation to notice we’re not exactly in a better spot than we were 3 1/2 years ago.
Are you serious? You won’t vote for someone who isn’t of Mexican descent or catholic? Please tell me you were joking because that would be incredibly racist. I can understand voting for a Hispanic if your views aligned for the purpose of empowerment, but Carr Blanche “Mexican or bust” is wrong.