Dallas, TX
Dallas City Council election filing deadline closes. Here is who’s on the May 3 ballot
More than three dozen current and former elected officials, perennial candidates and newcomers are vying for 14 seats on the Dallas City Council this spring.
The filing deadline for candidates to gain a spot on the May 3 election ballot was 5 p.m. Friday. Write-in candidates have until Tuesday to declare their candidacy. The deadline to withdraw from the ballot is next Friday.
Dallas voters will elect at least four new council members, representing District 4 in South Oak Cliff, District 6 in West Dallas, a vast stretch of Far Southern Dallas in District 8 and District 11 in North Dallas.
Council member Jaynie Schultz (D11) is not seeking a third term, and council members Carolyn King Arnold (D4), Tennell Atkins (D8) and Omar Narvaez (D6) are ineligible to run in 2025 because they’ve served the limit of four two-year terms.
Arnold is the only one in the trio who is term-limited despite not serving her eight consecutive years. New voter-approved city charter rules in November now ban Dallas mayors and council members from being eligible for election after already serving eight years. City district elected officials were previously term-limited if they were selected for two-year terms four times in a row. After sitting out one election cycle, the term count would reset, and they could be eligible for election again.
Atkins, for instance, has served eight two-year terms since 2007. Arnold has been elected to four full two-year terms since 2015. She filed to run again, but the City Secretary’s Office denied her application, saying the new charter rules apply to past, current and future City Council members.
Mayor Eric Johnson is the only member of the City Council whose seat isn’t up for grabs. Dallas’ mayor is elected to four-year terms, and Johnson is halfway through his second and final term as the council’s only citywide elected official. His term ends in June 2027.
District council members earn $60,000 a year. To be able to run for office, candidates have to be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years old and a registered city voter as of Feb. 14. They also must be a Texas resident for at least one year and living in the council district they hope to represent at least six months before Feb. 14.
The last day to register to vote is April 3, and early voting runs from April 22-29 for the May 3 election.
If any of the 14 City Council races end with no candidate receiving more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will move to a runoff election on June 7. The new City Council is scheduled to be sworn in June 16.
Here’s who qualified for the ballot as of 6 p.m.:
District 1 [North Oak Cliff]
Jason Vanhof: Small business owner, first-time candidate
Chad West (incumbent): First elected in 2019 and seeking a fourth term
Katrina Whatley: realtor, first-time candidate
District 2 [Medical District, Deep Ellum, the Cedars, East Dallas and parts of downtown]
Sukhbir Kaur: Previously ran for City Council in 2023
Jesse Moreno (incumbent): First elected in 2021 and seeking a third term
District 3 [Southwest Dallas]
Zarin Gracey (incumbent): First elected in 2023 and seeking a second term
District 4 [South Oak Cliff]
Avis Hardaman: A teacher, first-time candidate
Maxie Johnson: Dallas Independent School District Board Trustee and pastor. Previously ran for City Council in 2021.
District 5 [Pleasant Grove]
Elizabeth Matus: First-time candidate who described herself on her candidate filing application as a nanny and secretary
Jaime Resendez (incumbent): First elected in 2019 and seeking a fourth term
District 6 [West Dallas, Love Field]
Monica R. Alonzo: Served three terms on the City Council representing District 6 from 2011 to 2015. She has since run for City Council in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023.
David Blewett: Served one term on the City Council representing District 14 from 2019 to 2021. Ran for a U.S. House of Representatives seat for Texas in 2024.
Laura Cadena: Former staff member and chief of staff for outgoing District 6 council member Omar Narvaez. First-time candidate.
Tony Carrillo: Previously ran for City Council in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023.
Gabriel Kissinger: A photographer and first-time candidate
Machelle Wells: A first-time candidate who described herself on her candidate filing application as a professional public speaker
District 7 [South Dallas, Buckner Terrace]
Adam Bazaldua (incumbent): First elected in 2019 and seeking a fourth term
O’Neil Hesson: Environmental nonprofit owner and first-time candidate.
Jose Rivas Jr.: Former Dallas community police oversight vice chair and first-time candidate.
District 8 [Far Southern Dallas, including Red Bird, Highland Hills]
Lorie Blair: Former city plan commissioner. First-time candidate.
Subrina Lynn Brenham: A tax professional who previously ran for City Council in 2013, 2015, 2021 and 2023
Eugene Ralph: A first-time candidate who described himself on his candidate filing application as a low-voltage technician
Ruth Steward: A retiree who has previously run for City Council in 1999, 2000, and 2005
Erik Wilson: Served one term on the City Council representing District 8 from 2015 to 2017. He also ran for City Council in 2017 and 2019.
District 9 [East Dallas including White Rock Lake area]
Ernest Banda: A first-time candidate who is retired
Paula Blackmon (incumbent): First elected in 2019 and seeking a fourth term
District 10 [Northeast Dallas]
Sirrano Keith Baldeo: Previously ran for City Council in 2019, 2021 and 2023
Kathy Stewart (incumbent): First elected in 2023 and seeking a second term.
District 11 [North Dallas]
Mona Andy Elshenawy: A first-time candidate who described herself on her candidate filing application as a public health professional
Jeff Kitner: Former Dallas Park and Recreation Board member and COO of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce. First-time candidate.
Bill Roth: Commercial real estate company owner and attorney who is a first-time candidate
District 12 [Far North Dallas]
Cara Mendelsohn (incumbent): First elected in 2019 and seeking a fourth term
Marc Rossouw: A financial advisor and first-time candidate
District 13 [Northwest and North Central Dallas, including Preston Hollow and Vickery Meadow]
Gay Donnell Willis (incumbent): First elected in 2021 and seeking third term
District 14 [Uptown, Oak Lawn, Lower Greenville, Old East Dallas and parts of Downtown]
Paul Ridley (incumbent): First elected in 2021 and seeking third term
It became Dallas County’s new, contemporary facility to house accused criminals in 1993. Today, close to 7,000 men and women each day either serve time, wait for trials, or transfer to state prison inside the county’s Lew Sterrett jail.
The elected leader of county government, Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins, says it’s time for a new facility — and it will cost billions to build it.
“We’ve got to begin planning and doing the work, because we can’t wait until this jail is absolutely just failing,” said Jenkins.
Expansion and development in and around downtown Dallas have the county keeping quiet about future locations.
“So we are looking at sites, and I think we’ll have land purchased this year,” Jenkins said. “And a land purchase in the relative scheme of things is a very insignificant financial amount of this.
“When I’m talking about starting on planning and building of a jail, I’m talking about something that will open perhaps 8 or 9 or even ten years from now.”
To complete a new facility in 10 years, Jenkins said the costs will be in the billions, based on a desire to build a jail that offers mental health and substance abuse treatment, trying to end the cycle of folks filling the jail, arrested over and over again for non-violent crimes.
A hearing room at Dallas City Hall was packed with an overflow crowd. Supporters of Oak Lawn United Methodist Church were ready for a fight, but that fight was one-sided.
“Rainbow steps shouldn’t be controversial,” one supporter said during his 3 minutes at the public comment microphone. “It’s just paint, y’all!”
The church came to the Dallas Landmark Commission to get permission for the rainbow steps painted last month in response to Governor Greg Abbott’s order to paint over crosswalks with political or ideological references, like the rainbow crosswalk outside Oak Lawn United Methodist.
“”These rainbow steps that I’m sitting on are an art installation,” Oak Lawn United Methodist Church Senior Pastor Reverend Rachel Griffin-Allison said. “We feel that it is urgent to make a statement, make a bold statement, and a visible statement, to say that who you are is queer, and beloved, and belongs here.”
As NBC 5 spoke with the pastor, someone yelled homophobic insults from a passing car.
“This is important to have because that kind of heckling happens all the time,” Griffin-Allison said somberly.
The church, a Gothic revival building, is a designated historic landmark, which is why it needed the Dallas Landmark Commission’s approval.
“They are not considered part of the historic preservation building; they are just steps,” one speaker said during public comments.
Several speakers pointed out that the steps had been painted a “gaudy blood red” in the past, and then a shade of gray with no comments or approval.
“When I see the stairs, I see love, support, inclusion, and kindness,” a woman wearing sequin rainbow sneakers said. “They bring a smile to my face and my heart.”
“If you don’t like rainbow steps on your church, then go to one of the 500 churches that don’t have them,” a young man said to the commissioners. “We have one street that represents this culture, and we have one church with rainbow steps!”
Not a single speaker spoke out against the rainbow steps art installation, and it was apparent there was no fight with the commissioners either, as they unanimously voted to allow the rainbow steps to stay up for 3 years.
DALLAS – Dallas police arrested a man for murder after they say he shot a couple he met through an online dating app.
What we know:
Investigators say 26-year-old Noah Trueba shot and killed a 57-year-old woman on Friday morning in Northwest Dallas. Dallas Fire-Rescue responded and pronounced one of the individuals, 57-year-old Guadalupe Gonzalez, dead at the scene.
The second victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
According to an affidavit, Trueba drank and used drugs with the two, who called themselves husband and wife. Trueba later told police that the couple tried to sexually assault him, so he opened fire.
A police drone located him hiding along a nearby highway, after he ran from the scene.
What’s next:
Trueba was arrested at the scene. He is currently booked in the Dallas County Jail and being charged with murder.
This is an ongoing investigation and anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Brewster Billings at 214-671-3083 or at brewster.billings@dallaspolice.gov.
The Source: Information in this article was provided from documents provided by the Dallas Police Department.
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