Former State Rep. Sylvester Turner defeated his opponent, former Kemah mayor Bill King, by a .04 percent in a runoff election Saturday.
The election showed 50.02 to 49.98 percent of votes for Turner and King respectively.
This mayoral race was one of the closet runoff races in recent times, according to Houston Public Media.
Early voting reflected a seven percent lead for Turner.
Turner’s platform, “Putting Values into Action,” includes the values he has learned along his journey from being the first of nine in his family to go to college at the University of Houston and Harvard Law School, to becoming a member of the Texas House of Representatives.
In a previous interview with The Cougar, Turner detailed what will be his first order of business.
“The first major challenge for the first mayor — in the first 100 days, of course — will be to get a budget together that will balance and member of city council will adopt,” Turner said.
Although Turner has a history of negotiating and working alongside Republicans in Texas legislature, his first test as mayor will be dealing with Houston’s deficit.
“I have been able to effectively work with people from different parties (and) different points of view to get things accomplished and achieved.” Turner said in a previous interview with The Cougar. “It’s going to take the same thing, the same ability to be mayor of the city of Houston, the most diverse city in the country.”
