See you December 9

Top 2 candidates are headed for runoff in Houston mayoral election

Sheila Jackson Lee John Whitmire Houston mayor

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee will face State Sen. John Whitmire in the mayoral runoff.

Courtesy of Sheila Jackson Lee/John Whitmire-Facebook

Houston's mayoral election is down to the top two candidates.

On Tuesday, November 7, voters narrowed down the 17-candidate field to State Sen. John Whitmire and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

Neither candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, which means there will be a runoff election in December.

As of Wednesday morning, with an estimated 55 percent of the total vote reported, Whitmire secured 42 percent and Jackson Lee secured 36 percent.

The remaining votes are divided among other candidates, mainly Gilbert Garcia, Lee Kaplan, and Jack Christie.

A runoff was predicted to happen, and political experts say the real race starts now.

"We're going to celebrate tonight, but we've got some unfinished business. My team has been prepared for this night for days," Whitmire said.

"I'm very glad for the voters who voted for me. We will move to the runoff if that is what it will be. We're going to work very hard," Jackson Lee said.

The mayoral candidates aren't the only ones headed for a runoff.

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Continue reading this story, with video, on our news partner ABC13.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”