CELIA ISRAEL

Former Austin mayor Kirk Watson has been elected mayor again, defeating Celia Israel. Here's what you need to know.

Pro-police funding Democrat Kirk Watson won the mayoral runoff election in Austin, Texas, despite the city pushing to cut off law enforcement spending.

Former Austin mayor Kirk Watson won a runoff against Celia Israel on Tuesday. Voters in Williamson County were the difference.

Watson, a former state senator who was Austin’s mayor from 1997 to 2001, pitched himself as a back-to-basics candidate who could ease the city’s growing affordability crisis.

Celia Israel faces Kirk Watson in a runoff for Austin mayor on December 13. The candidate did a Reddit AMA on Friday.

The capital city’s mayoral race is something of a test case in how the state’s rising housing costs might influence local races in major cities.

The Austin mayoral race has not been decided because no candidate garnered 50 percent of the votes. Celia Israel and Kirk Watson will head to a December runoff.

In three key local elections, the Austin mayoral race will be decided in a runoff, Republican Tim O’Hare won the Tarrant County judge race and Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins won reelection.

Travis County early voting begins October 24 and runs through November 4. The city will elect a new mayor and decide on Councilmembers in five Austin districts.

Former Austin mayor and Democratic state Sen. Kirk Watson has also expressed interest in running for the position, as has City Council member Kathie Tovo. Two candidates have formally announced their candidacy: Jennifer Virden, a Realtor and former Austin city council candidate, and Erica Nix.

“We should be progressing in time with how we’re dealing with these issues but we’re not,” said Israel, an Austin Democrat and founding member of the Texas House LGBTQ Caucus. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 25 into law on Monday. “This was not a Texas special bill,” Israel said of HB 25. But their objections weren’t enough to stop HB 25 from being resurrected special session after special session this year. The business argumentBack in 2017, the business community played an important role in stopping the bathroom bill from picking up steam in the Texas House.

Israel’s decision creates a vacancy in Austin-area House District 50 with redistricting underway at the Legislature.

Democrats who have returned to the state could be detained and forced to come to the capitol.

Texas Republicans have again authorized using law enforcement Democrats who are still refusing to come back to the state Capitol in a bid to stop new voting restrictions.

House Democrats who refuse to show up for the Legislature could soon be detained by law enforcement and brought back to the state Capitol, after the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday voided a state district judge's temporary restraining order barring their arrest.

House Democrats who refuse to show up for the Legislature could soon be detained by law enforcement and brought back to the state Capitol, after...

State Representatives Trey Martinez Fisher and Celia Israel announced they tested positive for COVID-19.

“Let this be a reminder that COVID-19 is still very much among us, with infection rates on the rise and more infectious variants spreading nationwide," Rep. Celia Israel said in a statement

Senate Bill 321 would enroll new state workers in a cash-balance plan — similar to a common 401(k) retirement account — rather than the defined-benefit pension plan that current employees have.

Texas has become the latest Republican-dominated state to advance sweeping new limits on voting, despite no evidence of any problems with last year’s vote and a coalition of state and federal officials calling the 2020 presidential election the most secure in history.