Annise Parker is the first major Democrat to announce a run.
HOUSTON — It’s been nearly a decade since Annise Parker was last in public office.
But Parker claims that time away is a positive and would benefit her in any future role, as she now has new ideas and new energy after viewing political life from the outside looking in.
The Democrat is now running for Harris County Judge, the top job in Texas’ most populous county.
Parker says public safety is priority number one for Harris County, and that includes everything from emergency management and flood abatement to public health.
“Is this a place that you can live safely and happily and, frankly, affordably and continue to thrive?” she asked rhetorically on Inside Texas Politics. “And I think we’re teetering on the brink in a lot of those things.”
When Parker was first elected as Houston’s mayor in 2010, she became the first openly LGBTQ mayor in a major U.S. city. She remains the only person to hold the office of mayor, controller and council member in Houston.
After serving as mayor, Parker became President and CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, a political action committee. She resigned from that position last year.
Since she announced she was running, Parker has been waiting to hear from Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who has yet to announce whether she’ll seek reelection. Parker and Hidalgo would face off in the Democratic primary next March.
“I think she ought to be clear about her intentions. We are living in a time of great uncertainty. And so much is happening in Washington that is going to be rolling down on Harris County. I think everybody ought to know who the leadership is going to be,” argued the former mayor.
Parker says even county leaders have to address and manage the policy that comes out of Washington, D.C., particularly during this time when she claims the White House is taking aim at local government.
“We’re going to be on our own. We have to figure out how to get it done. Because that’s the difference in local government, you have to get it done somehow or another. You can’t just say, ‘Oh, we’re just going to step over people,’ or, ‘We’re just going to let these people whose houses are flooded suffer on their own.’ We have to figure out ways to address it,” said Parker.
The only other known candidate in this race is a Republican — Piney Point Village Mayor Aliza Dutt announced her candidacy in May.
