John Whitmire

John Harris Whitmire (born August 13, 1949) is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 63rd mayor of Houston, Texas, since 2024. Whitmire was previously a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1973 until 1983, and the Texas State Senate from 1983 to 2023. In the state senate, he represented District 15, which included much of northern Houston. In November 2021, Whitmire announced his candidacy for mayor of Houston in the 2023 election. In November 2023, he advanced to a runoff with Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. He won the runoff by a wide margin on December 9, 2023.

Photo: U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Public domain via Wikimedia Commons