Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee won a spot in a run-off race against Texas State Senator John Whitmire in the Houston mayoral race. The latest count shows Whitmire with 42.5% of the vote and Jackson Lee with 35.7%. The two Democrats will face-off on Saturday, Dec.9.

The field was crowded. A majority vote is needed to avoid a run-off, which no one received. Current Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is term limited. The most recent polling by the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs showed Whitmire and Jackson Lee as the frontrunners. The race was predicted to be tight.

Jackson Lee is ready to “come home” after a longtime career in the House of Representatives and thinks she should be the mayor of the city. Longtime State Senator Whitmire is also looking to make a change in his political career. He is the longest-serving Texas Senator, serving 40 years in the Texas Senate. Jackson Lee has been in Congress since 1995. When she announced her candidacy, several leading Democrats in Houston dropped their plans to run.

Whitmire posted a statement on Facebook.

“I’m encouraged by tonight’s results,” the state senator wrote in a Facebook post. “We are going to continue to campaign on improvements to public safety, infrastructure, city services, transparency in our city and our city finances. I’m looking forward to continuing to build a diverse coalition of Houstonians. As I’ve said before, no one’s gonna outwork me on this campaign. Let’s get to work!”

The 18-candidate field was the most crowded and the most expensive mayoral race in recent history. What was interesting to me, as a Houstonian voter, was an apparent lack of interest by voters. The airwaves were not flooded with campaign ads. I saw more Whitmire ads than Jackson Lee ads. Maybe Sheila thought she would win outright.

The point when some voters tuned in was when a profanity-laced audio tape of a conversation between Jackson Lee and a staffer went viral. For years, Jackson Lee has had a reputation for being a terrible boss and has a high turnover rate with staff. There was also a kerfuffle reported during a campaign appearance by Hillary Clinton for Jackson Lee. An audience member stood up and yelled at Clinton about Bill’s trips to Epstein’s island home. He was dragged out of the room by security guards.

Jackson Lee approached Houston issues with more of a federal approach while Whitmire focused on law and order and crime with a more locally-oriented approach using state resources.

“My plan includes analyzing the high crime areas of our city, targeting that area with our law enforcement. Of course, that will have police-community relationships, so it won’t be like we’re targeting our neighbors,” she said in an interview with Houston Public Media. “But at the same time, I’m going to be working with the U.S. Department of Labor. I want more job training programs brought here. I want to make sure that we have a solid reentry program.”

Whitmire offered a different approach. He pledged to bring in 200 Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to assist the Houston Police Department.

“They would work under the direction of Chief Finner,” he said, “who will tell you today, they’re already there. They’re partners with their Anti-Gang Task Force [and] their Narcotics Division.”

Whitmire said in addition to manpower, the DPS has other resources that Houston police currently lack. Those include helicopters to reduce the threats posed by high-speed chases and an extra forensics lab that could cut the backlog in Houston’s rape kit and ballistics analyses. It’s not clear whether DPS forensics would be available for Houston police to use in cases not directly involving the DPS.

Still, Whitmire said, all that would enable HPD to focus on other tasks. “Your burglar alarm goes off, the bad guys don’t even worry about it any longer because they know there’s not going to be a response,” Whitmire said. “Traffic enforcement is not what it ought to be. Repeat violent offenders are walking the streets of Houston with warrants for their arrest.”

Whitmire had some support from Republican donors because he is seen as a more moderate Democrat who will work with everyone on important issues. He is a Democrat but voters could pick up on a difference in rhetoric between the two finalists. Whitmire concentrated on saying he can bring people together while Jackson Lee peppered her speeches with bashing “MAGA Republicans” and claiming she would make abortion available to women. As mayor, she has no say in abortion policy but she knew abortion is a hot button election issue. She works to divide, not unite.

It looks like Houstonians are ready for a more moderate mayor. There is no hope of the city having a Republican mayor so all conservatives can hope for is a less-than-crazy Democrat.