This is going to make for a fun debate. And by “fun”, I mean the sort of thing that will make me want to gouge out an eyeball or two.
Mayor John Whitmire
The Harris County Democratic Party will vote on a resolution that would bar Houston Mayor John Whitmire from receiving the party’s endorsement on Dec. 14.
The resolution was advanced this week by the party’s Steering Committee, which voted 17–7 to send it to all Democratic precinct chairs for consideration. The measure was authored by Cameron “Coach Cam” Campbell, a precinct chair and member of the Houston Progressive Caucus, who said he drafted it earlier this year after Whitmire headlined a fundraiser for Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw.
“That was the beginning of it,” Campbell said. “Every penny raised to support a Republican is a penny used to defeat a Democrat. It’s not ideological purity — it’s about what a good Democrat is.”
The resolution accuses the mayor of undermining the party by appearing at the Crenshaw event alongside Republican County Commissioner Tom Ramsey. The resolution cites Crenshaw’s past statements on diversity initiatives, Planned Parenthood and his response to the Jan. 6 attack; Ramsey’s vote against certifying the 2021 Harris County election; and Whitmire’s decision to attend the fundraiser despite Crenshaw being endorsed by the county GOP.
The resolution concludes that Whitmire’s “political behavior…undermines the values and mission of the Democratic Party,” and calls for denying him endorsement in all future elections.
Campbell said Whitmire’s relationship with local Democrats soured further after recent revelations about coordination between Houston police and federal immigration authorities. Campbell also said any pushback the resolution received in the party has mostly been from Democrats who feared being on the mayor’s “bad side.”
“You have to remind folks that he works for us. We don’t work for him,” Campbell said.
Harris County Democratic Party Chair Mike Doyle said the resolution has moved through the party’s standard multistep process. It first passed the Resolutions Committee, then the Steering Committee, and now moves to the County Executive Committee — the full body of roughly 590 precinct chairs.
That meeting will take place Dec. 14 at Baker Ripley House and is open to the public.
There are a number of reasons to not take action here, and a number of reasons to follow through. On the former:
1. It’s basically a moot point, since the HCDP would only endorse in a Dem-versus-Republican race, and Whitmire is highly unlikely to draw a sufficiently prominent Republican opponent who could either freeze out other substantive candidates or force him into a runoff. Indeed, the most likely scenario is that Whitmire draws a high profile Democratic opponent, in which case the HCDP would be barred from making any endorsement anyway.
2. Along the lines of the first item, Whitmire retains a significant amount of support among Democrats. He’s definitely lost some – we don’t know where he is on that right now, the most recent polling is months old and not useful at this time – but it would not surprise me if he has at least a plurality of Dems on his side. The point is that this will be a divisive vote, for no obvious gain.
3. The primary sin of headlining a fundraiser for Rep. Dan Crenshaw certainly rankles, but as we know with a lot of issues it’s not the position as much as the intensity of it. As in, while I doubt many Dems would approve of this, I don’t know how many of them care enough about it for them to change how they feel about Whitmire, and whether or not they support him. You know how polls regularly show that Texas’ abortion ban is unpopular in the state? That hasn’t won us a whole lot of elections, has it? That’s my point.
The case for action is simply that Whitmire, at least as Mayor, just does not embody Democratic values and he needs to hear that. More to the point, candidates and incumbents running for City Council need to hear it, because they will be more vulnerable to any anti-Whitmire backlash, especially in the Democratic Council districts, than Whitmire himself is. Whitmire still needs a majority on Council to pass stuff, and there are several Council members who support him that could feel some heat for it. There are also term-limited Council members who are generally supportive of Whitmire who could be succeeded by candidates who do not.
Or at least, Council members could be incentivized to push Whitmire on specific issues where he has fallen well short of expectations, like his cowardly capitulation on ICE. See the Chron endorsement of Alejandra Salinas for a clear example of the kind of response a repudiation of Whitmire could look like.
The fight inside the Democratic Party these days is not about “progressive” versus “centrist”. It’s about who’s willing and able to stand up to Donald Trump and his Republican enablers as they push hateful, anti-democratic, vengeful policies and seek to exert control over those they consider their enemies. We all know where John Whitmire stands in this fight. It’s his brand. No one should be surprised that a lot of Democrats aren’t happy about it.
I guess these local Democrats haven’t heard that MAGA Gov. Greg Abbott is going to put a chunk of his $90 million war chest into Harris County.
And what, we’re going to miss out on millions of dollars in support from John Whitmire as a result? Like, one of the original complaints about Whitmire from people like me is that he’s been busy raising craptons of money but has never spent any of it in support of other Democrats. I’m not worried about what Governor Unpopular is going to do next year. If I had reason to worry about what Mayor Whitmire might or might not do, I’d have listed that as a reason to not take action above. But we all know what Whitmire is going to do in the 2026 election, and that’s nothing. Except raise more money for himself. Which is what he’s always done.
The current mayor is his own political party with loyalty to no one but himself. He holds grudges near and dear to his heart. Such people and entities no longer exist for him…forever, such as the Houston Chronicle to which he has never responded since his election. He expects others to fill up his sand box but they can’t get in it, ever. He dismisses people from boards with half truths. He chose not to fight for the rainbow crosswalk. He fired the LGBT advisory council to replace it with others…haven’t heard that he listens to them. So…this is the current mayor. If a Democrat runs against him and the party won’t endorse him, that opens a big door for the ultimate D candidate, imo.
So the precinct chairs will have claimed their voice which is what we need and he refuses to give!
Whitmire and the horse he rode in on.