As six challengers and an incumbent face off to earn a four-year seat as Austin’s mayor, the city faces growing housing and affordability crises, heightened mobility challenges and a community polarized over the city’s land use policies. The victor in November will lead only the second mayoral term since the city moved to the district representation city council system known as 10-1—10 council members elected by individual districts and one mayor elected by a citywide popular vote. Incumbent Mayor Steve Adler has served since 2015 and is seeking a second term as Austin’s top elected official. Standing in his path toward reelection are six challengers who come from vastly different backgrounds. Travis Duncan, a former energy consultant with Tesla; Laura Morrison, a former two-term City Council member who has remained active in Austin politics; Alan Pease, a writer and member of the city’s aquatics board; Gus Peña, a Marine Corps. veteran and former investigator with the Internal Revenue Service; Todd Phelps, a former mayoral candidate and musician and Alexander Strenger, a pedicab driver. The candidates each answered five questions, ranging from land use and affordability to mobility and their campaign priorities. Community Impact Newspaper set a strict 100-word limit and did not edit the answers for grammar or spelling—they are printed verbatim. Pease and Peña failed to submit answers and are not included below.