Houston, Texas
| Houston, Texas | |
 | |
| General information | |
Mayor of Houston
John Whitmire | |
| Last mayoral election: | 2023 |
| Next mayoral election: | 2027 |
| Last city council election: | 2023 |
| Next city council election: | 2027 |
| City council seats: | 16 |
| City website | |
| Composition data (2019) | |
| Population: | 2,310,432 |
| Race: | White 57.0% African American 22.6% Asian 6.8% Native American 0.3% Pacific Islander 0.1% Two or more 2.2% |
| Ethnicity: | Hispanic 45.0% |
| Median household income: | $52,338 |
| High school graduation rate: | 78.9% |
| College graduation rate: | 32.9% |
| Related Houston offices | |
| Texas Congressional Delegation Texas State Legislature Texas state executive offices | |
Houston is a city in Harris County, Texas. The city's population was 2,304,580 as of 2020, according to the United States Census Bureau.
Click on the links below to learn more about the city's...
- Mayor
- City council
- Other elected officials
- Elections
- Census information
- Budget
- Contact information
- Ballot measures
- County government
City government
- See also: Mayor-council government
The city of Houston utilizes a strong mayor and city council system. In this form of municipal government, the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body while the mayor serves as the city's chief executive.[1][2]
Mayor
The mayor serves as the city's chief executive and is responsible for proposing a budget, signing legislation into law, appointing departmental directors, and overseeing the city's day-to-day operations. The mayor also represents the city on the state, national, and international levels. Houston's mayor also presides over city council meetings and may cast a vote along with the rest of the council, which is typically a feature of weak mayor-council or council-manager governments. The current Mayor of Houston is John Whitmire (nonpartisan). Whitmire assumed office in 2024.[1]
City council
The Houston City Council is the city's primary legislative body. It is responsible for adopting the city budget, approving mayoral appointees, levying taxes, and making or amending city laws, policies, and ordinances.[2]
The Houston City Council has 16 members. Five members are elected at large, while the other 11 are elected by the city's 11 districts.[2]
The widget below automatically displays information about city council meetings. The topic list contains a sampling of keywords that Voterheads, a local government monitoring service, found in each meeting agenda. Click the meeting link to see more info and the full agenda:
Other elected officials
Mayoral partisanship
Houston has a Democratic mayor. As of March 2025, 65 mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 25 are affiliated with the Republican Party, one is affiliated with the Libertarian Party, two are independents, four identify as nonpartisan or unaffiliated, and three mayors' affiliations are unknown. Click here for a list of the 100 largest cities' mayors and their partisan affiliations.
Mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan in most of the nation's largest cities. However, many officeholders are affiliated with political parties. Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder's partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.
Elections
2023
The city of Houston, Texas, held general elections for mayor, city council, and controller on November 7, 2023. A general runoff election was scheduled for December 9, 2023. The regular filing deadline for this election was August 21, 2023, and the write-in candidate filing deadline was August 25, 2023.
2022
- See also: City elections in Houston, Texas (2022)
The city of Houston, Texas, held a special election for City Council District G on January 25, 2022. The filing deadline for this election was December 16, 2021.[3]
2019
- See also: City elections in Houston, Texas (2019)
2018
The city of Houston, Texas, held a special election for the District K seat on the city council on May 5, 2018. The filing deadline to run in this election was March 26, 2018.
2015
The city of Houston, Texas, held nonpartisan elections for mayor and city council on November 3, 2015. A runoff election was held on December 12, 2015, in races where no candidates received simple majorities. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was August 24, 2015. All 16 city council seats were up for election.[4]
Census information
The table below shows demographic information about the city.
| Demographic Data for Houston | |
|---|---|
| Houston | |
| Population | 2,304,580 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 640 |
| Race and ethnicity** | |
| White | 35.5% |
| Black/African American | 22.9% |
| Asian | 6.9% |
| Native American | 0.9% |
| Pacific Islander | 0.3% |
| Two or more | 19.2% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 44.1% |
| Education | |
| High school graduation rate | 80.3% |
| College graduation rate | 36% |
| Income | |
| Median household income | $62,894 |
| Persons below poverty level | 19.7% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2018-2023). | |
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | |
Budget
The city's budget process operates by fiscal years running from July 1 to June 30 of the next year. The budgeting process begins with city departments submitting their individual budgets to the Finance Department. The Finance Department then meets with the department heads to discuss what items get incorporated into the annual budget. After presentation to and approval by the mayor, the city council reviews the budget and holds public hearings. Once approved by the city council, the budget is officially adopted.[5]
Fiscally standardized cities data
The fiscally standardized cities (FiSC) data below was compiled by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to make municipal budgets comparable across cities in the United States.[6]
| “ |
FiSCs are constructed by adding revenues and expenditures of each central city municipal government to a portion of the revenues and expenditures of overlying governments, including counties, independent school districts, and special districts. The allocations to FiSCs are estimates of the revenues collected from and services provided to central city residents and businesses by these overlying independent governments. Thus FiSCs provides a full picture of revenues raised from city residents and businesses and spending on their behalf, whether done by the city government or a separate overlying government.[7] |
” |
| —Lincoln Institute of Land Policy[8] | ||
The tables below show estimated finances within city limits. As such, the revenue and expenses listed may differ from the actual city budget.
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Historical total revenue and expenditure
To see the historical total revenue or expenditures as a rounded amount in this city, hover over the bars.[6]
See also
External links
- City of Houston
- Office of the Mayor
- Houston City Council
- Houston City Charter
- Houston Municipal Code
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 City of Houston, "Mayor's Office," accessed August 20, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 City of Houston, "Houston City Council," accessed August 20, 2021
- ↑ Houston Chronicle, "Special election for open City Council seat set for Jan. 25 in west Houston," November 10, 2021
- ↑ Harris County, "Important 2015 Election Dates," accessed January 12, 2015
- ↑ City of Houston, "FY 2023 Adopted Budget," accessed August 23, 2023
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities database," accessed August 23, 2023
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities," accessed August 23, 2023
- ↑ ABC 13, "Several officers hurt, nearly 200 arrested during George Floyd protest," May 30, 2020
- ↑ Movement Advancement Project, "Local Employment Non-Discrimination Ordinances," accessed July 7, 2015
- ↑ Houston Chronicle, "Council passes equal right ordinance," May 28, 2014
- ↑ City of Houston, "Equal Rights Ordinance," accessed August 20, 2021
- ↑ Houston Chronicle, "Equal rights law opponents deliver signatures seeking repeal," July 3, 2014
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Vox, "Houston Mayor scales back controversial subpoena of local pastors’ sermons," October 16, 2014
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Washington Post, "Houston subpoenas pastors’ sermons in gay rights ordinance case," October 15, 2014
- ↑ Alliance Defending Freedom Media, "Woodfill Subpoena Request 2014-44974," archived October 16, 2014
- ↑ CBS Houston, "Cruz: 'Government has no Business asking Pastors to turn over Sermons'" archived October 18, 2014
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 NPR, "Houston Narrows The Scope Of Controversial Subpoena Of Pastors' Sermons," October 17, 2014
- ↑ Houston Chronicle, "Mayor Parker revises, narrows sermon subpoena request," October 17, 2014
- ↑ Houston Chronicle, "Mayor's decision to drop subpoenas fails to quell criticism," October 29, 2014
- ↑ Houston Chronicle, "City attorney cites equal rights ordinance in decision to resign," archived December 23, 2014
- ↑ Houston Chronicle, "After mixed verdict, city confident judge in HERO suit will rule in its favor," February 13, 2015
- ↑ ABC13, "Judge Rules in Favor of City on Houston's Equal Rights Ordinance," April 17, 2015
- ↑ Houston Business Journal, "Houston Equal Rights Ordinance suspended," July 24, 2015
- ↑ Texas Tribune, "Bathroom Fears Flush Houston Discrimination Ordinance," November 3, 2015
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