Natasha Harper-Madison, a mother and advocate for affordable housing, transportation, equity and small businesses, received 25.74 percent of the early vote for the Austin City Council District 1 seat.
She leads the five other candidates for the position: Mitrah Avini, a native Austinite who is running on a preservation platform; Lewis Conway Jr., an organizer for local nonprofit Grassroots Leadership and the first formerly incarcerated person in Texas to run for office; Vincent Harding, an attorney and former chairperson of the Travis County Democratic party; Mariana Salazar, an immigrant who has 15 years of community organizing experience; and Reedy Spigner, a PhD student who has made public safety a cornerstone of his campaign.
Salazar received 25.55 percent of the early vote,
Harding 24.37 percent, Conway 11.10 percent, Avini 8.92 percent and Spigner 4.32 percent.
If no candidate receives 50 percent of more of the vote, the two leading candidates will go into a runoff election, which will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 11.
Whoever wins the District 1 seat will serve in the second term of Austin's 10-1 City Council, which replaced the previous at-large system. Since 2014, council members have been elected from 10 geographical districts in an effort to equalize representation across the city. The mayor is elected in a citywide race.
Five of the 10 city council seats—for Districts 1, 5, 8 and 9, in addition to District 3—are open this election. Only District 5 is uncontested; incumbent Ann Kitchen is the sole candidate.
Nearly half—47.3 percent—of people registered in Travis County voted early. This is slightly less than in 2016, when 51.1 percent of voters did, but significantly more than the last midterm election, in 2014, when 22.3 percent did.
A record-setting 94 percent of eligible county residents are registered to vote, said Bruce Elfant, Travis County tax assessor collected and voter registrar. This is up from a previous record of 92 percent in 2016.
Incumbent Ora Houston, who was elected to represent District 1 in 2014, announced in June that she would not run for re-election. She endorsed Vincent Harding.
The only African-American council member, Houston fought for equitable services in District 1, which extends further east than any other district. She consistently reminded her colleagues on the dais of Austin’s history of racial segregation and its presence as one of the most economically segregated cities in the country.
