Austin candidates raised $140K heading into 2026 City Council elections this November

This month's semiannual campaign reports cover the second half of 2025. Filings on candidates' financial activity through the first half of 2026 are due in July, and further reporting will be required in the month ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

By the numbers

Two people have filed so far in the race to succeed Harper-Madison and represent portions of Central and East Austin in District 1.

Candidate Steven Brown raised almost $6,000 from more than two dozen people and spent less than $200, leaving him with just over $5,500 heading into 2026, while Alexandria Anderson reported no fundraising, campaign spending or cash on hand.

Sitting council member José Velásquez doesn't yet have any challengers in District 3, which covers portions of South and East Austin. Velásquez drew more than $27,000 in donations from over 100 people last year while reporting just under $1,400 in fundraising expenses, leaving him with more than $32,000 on hand for his upcoming campaign.

South Austin's District 5 race has three candidates so far, with David Weinberg and Farrah Abraham challenging incumbent council member Ryan Alter.

Alter drew $6,900 in late 2025 while reporting less than $4,000 in campaign expenses and political donations, and had more than $115,000 still available. Weinberg posted higher totals, with nearly $11,000 raised and more than $15,000 spent. He also had more than $270,000 available for his campaign as of Dec. 31, largely backed by two loans from himself totaling $275,000. Abraham, who initially filed to run for mayor—a position not up for an election until 2028—changed her candidacy to District 5 this month and reported no financial activity last year.

In District 8, Ellis is facing former Austin EMS Association President Selena Xie.

Xie outraised and outspent Ellis last year by about $5,000 and $6,000, respectively, while Ellis maintained a cash-on-hand edge of more than $100,000 to Xie's roughly $72,000.

Several challengers also emerged in Central Austin's District 9 to face incumbent council member Zo Qadri, although one—Ard Ardalan—suspended his campaign in December.

Qadri led in financial activity last year with more than $27,000 raised and nearly $30,000 spent, and maintained a higher cash on hand total than any of Austin's 2026 candidates but Weinberg with almost $182,000 still available. Candidate Richard Heyman raised about $8,500 and spent less than $1,000, leaving him with $7,600. And Ardalan raised $7,600, spent $4,100 and reported about $3,500 still remaining before ending his council bid.

A fourth candidate, Dave Thadani, also entered the race in January after the latest financial reporting period.

While not facing election campaigns this year, several other sitting officials also reported financial activity to close out 2025.

District 2 council member Vanessa Fuentes spent more than $14,000 of her remaining funds on other political campaigns, with the majority going to support the Proposition Q tax election, and had about $34,000 by the end of December.

District 4's Chito Vela also donated $1,000 to the pro-Proposition Q Love Austin PAC and had almost $1,700 still available. District 6's Krista Laine reported less than $2,000 spent and almost $8,200 on hand.

Love Austin formally dissolved this month, and the committee spent just over $2,300 on salaries and consulting following last year's tax rate election. The EMS association and Austinites for Equity political committees also spent tens of thousands of dollars to support the proposition through the fall.

District 7 council member Mike Siegel and District 10's Marc Duchen reported the highest fundraising totals among those at City Hall not facing elections this year. Siegel drew almost $14,000, spent about $16,000 and had nearly $20,000 still remaining. And Duchen raised $11,000, spent $9,000 and had more than $43,000 on hand.

Two groups associated with an initiative to stop the city's convention center redevelopment also posted tens of thousands of dollars in activity last year. Austin United PAC and Save Austin's Soul drew almost $77,000 and spent about $35,000 with $11,000 remaining for a possible election.

Last fall, the city rejected their voter petition seeking to put the convention center project and related hospitality tax spending on the ballot. Austin United sued over the city's review of that petition, and litigation remains in progress this year.