Fort Worth Councilman Brian Byrd launches campaign for mayor with Como speech
Councilman Brian Byrd wants to be Fort Worth’s next mayor, he announced Monday, touting a list of accomplishments from his two terms representing the southwest side.
Byrd, 50, a physician, said he would advocate for lower property taxes and job growth as well as continuing Mayor Betsy Price’s focus on education. He has represented District 3 since 2017 when he unseated former councilman W.B. ‘Zim’ Zimmerman. Price announced Jan. 5 she would not seek a sixth term as mayor.
“I’m ready to apply this solutions-first approach and leadership as our mayor,” Byrd said.
Byrd trumpeted efforts to revitalize the Las Vegas Trail and Como neighborhoods along with work with his wife to open a shelter for young people who may be at risk for human trafficking.
He has championed himself as a fiscal conservative, voting against the city’s budget in 2019 and 2020, arguing that more needed to be done to lessen residential property taxes. The city has lowered the property tax rate 12 cents in the last decade, he noted, but most Fort Worth home owners continue to pay more as property values increase. Byrd said he wanted to flip the tax burden away from homeowners.
He focused much of his energy during his first term to the Las Vegas Trail area of far west Fort Worth.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram drew attention to the neighborhood in 2017 with a look at life along “The Trail.” Part of the story focused on a girl who was kidnapped and sex-trafficked. He has said the girl’s story prompted him to tackle the neighborhood’s downward slide.
LVT Rise, a nonprofit founded to revitalize the area, has converted a former YMCA at 8201 Calmont Ave. into a new Las Vegas Trail community center, which, along with a community center Byrd has celebrated as solutions to improving the area.
Byrd also mentioned the Underground, a small space in the basement of One Safe Place, which is the first drop-in shelter in Tarrant County. His wife, Stephanie, a former UnBound director, helped spearhead the project, which opened last year.
He made his mayoral announcement at Opening Doors for Women in Need, a faith-based nonprofit focused on empowering women in the Como neighborhood.
Byrd worked with city staff to secure a federal grant that will pay for the bulk of a roughly $9 million streetscaping effort on Horne Street, the main thoroughfare of Como. This year the city selected the neighborhood for $3.2 million in targeted investment for things like streetlights and sidewalks, which Byrd said he advocated for.
“Mayor Price has something she likes to say. It goes like this, ‘You can’t run city hall from behind the desk, you got to be out.’ I think she’s exactly right,” Byrd said. “I learned so much when I stand on the front steps of people’s houses.”
Byrd complained that too many young Fort Worthians, particularly Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs, leave the city. He said he wanted to prioritize high-paying jobs and initiatives to grow diversity among Fort Worth leaders. This can be accomplished by continuing to build educational opportunities and by ensuring the city is business-friendly, he said.
After Byrd alluded to a mayoral run last week, a 2016 clip of him asking the Fort Worth school board to repeal newly adopted LGBTQ policies resurfaced online. In the speech, Byrd described elements of the policy related to working with transgender students as “a destructive worldview.”
Asked about the comments Monday and how they related to his message championing a diverse Fort Worth, Byrd said he had been mostly concerned about elements of the policy that would bar parents and guardians from discussions about a student’s gender identity. The district later tweaked the policies.
“There’s no place for discrimination in the city of Fort Worth anywhere,” he said.
Byrd’s candidacy for mayor opens the District 3 council seat for new representation.
Byrd is one of several to dip into the Fort Worth mayoral race, including his colleague District 9 Councilwoman Ann Zadeh, who said in a Facebook post last week she was ready to be mayor.
Tarrant County Democratic Party Chairwoman Deborah Peoples, who ran against Price in 2019, has committed to running.
Dee Kelly Jr., a prominent lawyer, had discussed running but decided not to last week.
Democrats state Rep. Ramon Romero and Elizabeth Beck, who recently ran against Republican incumbent Craig Goldman for Texas House District 97, both said after Price’s announcement last week that they had not ruled out running to replace her.
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 4:15 PM.
