HOUSTON — Current Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner may have had a strong lead, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a runoff election with Tony Buzbee.
“This is a completely new race now. This is race 2.0,” said Buzbee, during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
Buzbee, who proudly calls himself a political outsider, walked away with 28% of the vote.
Turner was a clear front-runner with 46% of the vote.
“The very fact that almost half of Houstonians, in a crowded field, where more than $10 million was spent by one person, and we came as close, I think it’s a very positive message,” Turner said.
Now, both have their sights set on the runoff election on Dec. 14.
KHOU political analyst Bob Stein said voter turnout for runoffs is historically incredibly low.
“That kind of low turnout, I still think favors someone like Buzbee, because his supporters are more likely to show up. But there aren’t that many of his supporters,” Stein said.
Stein said one of Turner’s big advantages is he’s the democratic candidate in a blue city.
However, his millionaire opponent said he’ll spend as much as it takes to get the current mayor out of office.
“For the next 39 days, this is going to be a full-on slugfest,” Buzbee said. “We’re going to be very specific. We’re going to draw a real distinction between what he has done or failed to do over the last four years, and what we are going to do.”