At a time of change and opportunity, here is Fort Worth’s best choice for mayor
Fort Worth’s next mayor will need to manage tremendous change.
At least a third of the City Council will be new, and the always-contentious redrawing of districts is coming. Much work remains to recover from the pandemic and recession. Police interaction with the community — at a perilous time of rising crime — demands attention. So does inequality across the city. On the Panther Island project, a fresh look and tough decisions may be necessary.
But these are opportunities, too. The next mayor must help Fort Worth become a more dynamic city, a better place to live and do business, particularly for young adults.
Both candidates in the June 5 runoff have strengths that would serve the moment. We again recommend voters choose Mattie Parker, the former mayoral chief of staff who now leads an education nonprofit.
The 37-year-old would be the youngest current mayor of a large U.S. city. Her experience and relative obscurity made a mayoral run seem bold. But over months of the campaign, she’s steadily shown she’s ready for the job, able to lead and grow at the same time. She has drawn in more support along the way.
Parker has the ability to bring groups together and find solutions that work for as many as possible. That will be crucial in improving the city’s economic recruitment and business development efforts.
Parker is positioned to step into a difficult task, leading without a lot of direct power. She knows city government from her time serving the City Council and Mayor Betsy Price, who departs as the city’s longest-serving leader. Parker’s ideas to improve responsiveness for small-business startups, for instance, would benefit a sector that suffered greatly from the coronavirus pandemic and its shutdowns.
Deborah Peoples, a retired AT&T executive and longtime community and political activist, led the first round, taking nearly 34 percent of the vote to nearly 31% for Parker. That’s a testament to Peoples’ campaign talent and likability, which are considerable.
It also reflects a changed Fort Worth, a majority Black and Hispanic city where new voices are rising. Peoples, 68, who until recently chaired the Tarrant County Democratic Party, speaks passionately about bringing those interests to the table. But her partisan history and liberal ideology would impede her ability to unite disparate groups around progress for the city.
Parker also recognizes the need to open more opportunity around the city and empower more of its citizens. She must work to uphold city government’s nonpartisan traditions as polarization seeps into every level of politics.
More residents must be brought to the table as the city manages growth, prepares for the future in business and education and spreads prosperity to all. Parker is prepared to lead Fort Worth in the work of preparing itself for rising generations.
Early voting begins Monday and ends June 1. All registered voters in the city can participate, regardless of whether or how one voted in the first round.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHey, who is behind these endorsements?
Members of the Editorial Board, which serves as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s institutional voice, decide candidates and positions to recommend to voters. The members of the board are: Cynthia M. Allen, columnist; Steve Coffman, editor and president; Bud Kennedy, columnist; Ryan J. Rusak, opinion editor; and Nicole Russell, opinion writer.
Members of our Community Advisory Board may also participate in candidate interviews and offer their views, but they do not vote on which candidate to recommend.
Read more by clicking the arrow in the upper right.
How does the process work?
The Editorial Board interviews candidates, asking about positions on issues, experience and qualifications, and how they would approach holding the office for which they are running. Board members do additional research on candidates’ backgrounds and the issues at hand. After that, members discuss the candidates and generally aim to arrive at a consensus, though not necessarily unanimity. All members contribute observations and ideas, so the resulting editorials represent the board’s view, not a particular writer.
How do partisanship and ideology factor in?
We’re not tied to one party or the other, and our positions on issues range across the ideological spectrum. We tend to prefer candidates who align with our previously stated positions, but qualifications, temperament and experience are important, too.