Houston needs someone on City Council willing to stand up to the mayor | Endorsement
For At Large 4, Jordan Thomas presents an optimistic vision in conflict with Mayor Whitmire. That's good.
By The Editorial Board, Opinions from the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board | Oct 9, 2025
For Houston City Council At Large 4 seat, the Houston Chronicle editorial board endorses Jordan Thomas, an urbanist policy wonk who presents a real vision of our city's future and a willingness to confront the mayor.
Houston Chronicle
What power does one member of Houston City Council have?
That’s the question voters should be asking themselves as they cast their ballots for the open At Large 4 seat. Big sweeps during typical election years can replace a majority of politicians around the horseshoe and change the direction of our city. Even switching out a district representative, who is expected to focus on their specific constituents, can make a big difference for hyper-local neighborhood issues. But a single at large member, who is elected to represent the entire city on Council, doesn’t have the budget of a district member or their specific portfolio, or much authority in our strong mayor system.
The best at large members find ways to create their own job. Think of Peter “Pedestrian Pete” Brown campaigning for walkability or Sallie Alcorn leveraging her experience to become something of an informal chief of staff for the city.
Voters should try to find someone among the current crop of candidates who has the vision and knowledge to actually make something productive out of a largely undefined role — a Houstonian who can use their position at City Hall to drive the change our city needs even as just one vote out of 16.
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Jordan Thomas ★★★★: The editorial board endorses this passionate policy wonk for his optimistic vision of our city's future, including safer roads and housing affordability, and his willingness to stand up to the mayor.
“I almost feel like we're directionless, and someone out of the 17 voices that sit on City Council needs to be painting a positive vision of the future,” he said during the endorsement meeting. “For me, in a word, that is urbanism. We need a more dense city to combat our sprawl. We need a city that attracts the workforce of the future, not the jobs of yesterday.”
Jordan Thomas
That is why we endorse Jordan Thomas for At Large 4.
More than any other candidate, Thomas has a real sense of how our municipal government can make Houston a better, more resilient place to live.
Thomas combines a youthful passion — he’s 36 — with a wonky knowledge about urbanism and road safety. At a time when more Houstonians die in car crashes than homicides, we need someone who will be an unabashed advocate for smarter road design, better sidewalks, and cutting the red tape that forces developers to build suburban-style construction in our urban core.
Houston is testing the limits of how sprawl can deliver growth and affordability, and Thomas is one of the few local politicos plugged into the national movement pursuing bipartisan policies to lower the cost of housing and help cities deliver services in an efficient, effective manner. His campaign website might as well be a think tank in miniature, filled with whip-smart ideas for tackling housing, infrastructure and flooding. Incumbents at City Hall should give it a read.
Thomas is also clear-eyed about the financial challenges facing our city, and wants to develop new revenue sources in a way that doesn't burden the poorest among us. We were impressed with his ability to hold up policy successes from other cities, such as letting voters have a say in raising the revenue cap in order to pay for specific projects, similar to Oklahoma City’s Metropolitan Area Projects. And he also thinks our local government should unite behind the creation of a special taxing district to fund parks, which a Kinder Institute report showed is widely popular among voters.
All of this impressive policy insight should be no surprise given Thomas’ background as a chief of staff to two at large council members — Amanda Edwards and Letitia Plummer — and his previous position on the board for LINK Houston, a transit advocacy nonprofit. He currently works as a project manager for Grid United, a local firm dedicated to building much-needed energy infrastructure in the United States.
Despite that insider experience — or perhaps because of it — Thomas is a sharp critic of the status quo at City Hall. He’s skeptical of how tax increment reinvestment zones divert funds to wealthy neighborhoods while exacerbating the city’s budget challenges. He’s also quick to call out the history of alleged corruption in institutions such as the Midtown Redevelopment Authority, which largely failed in its mission to deliver affordable housing.
Finally, we endorse Thomas because he has the unique ability to fill a much-needed role at City Hall — dedicated opposition.
Since the election of John Whitmire, we have watched as the City Council has been cowed by our strong mayor system. With 50 years of political experience, Whitmire has had little difficulty using his power to steamroll his opponents and force his allies to fall in line. Behind the scenes and off the record we hear elected officials and civic leaders muttering about how the mayor has gone astray, but few are brave enough to speak up out of fear that they’ll earn his ire and political punishment.
The city is worse off as a result. Political silence means the mayor has little incentive to stop unilaterally altering infrastructure projects, or substituting anecdotes and personal opinion for data and community input. He has not been challenged to explain his many surprise decisions about road projects, or lay out plans to solve the city’s financial woes in a way that doesn’t cut services to the bone.
Meeting with the editorial board, Thomas said he wants to be the “tip of the spear” — someone who can give voice to community concerns about the Whitmire administration, rally much-needed effective opposition, and use Council’s new powers from Proposition A to force votes on key policies. Iron sharpens iron, and having Thomas at City Hall would help make Whitmire a better mayor.
But Thomas is no mere obstructionist. He demonstrates a depth of knowledge about municipal policy that eclipses many longtime elected officials, and a real sense about how Houston can and should navigate a changing energy landscape that threatens to undermine our economic success and civic well-being.
We don’t have any illusions about the uphill battle Thomas faces to win this race. He has done little fundraising and has a dearth of serious endorsements. But Thomas is a candidate for this moment.
He is the sort of candidate this City Council needs today — someone with policy chops, much-needed courage of conviction, and an optimistic vision for Houston’s future.