2015 Houston mayoral election

The 2015 Houston mayoral election was decided by a runoff that took place on December 12, 2015, to elect the Mayor of Houston, Texas. As no candidate won a majority of the vote during the general election on November 3, 2015, the run off was held between the top two finishers, Sylvester Turner, who received 31.31% of the vote, and Bill King, who received 25.27%.^[1] In the run-off, Turner edged King, 51% to 49%, to become the 62nd Mayor of Houston.

Thirteen candidates appeared on the November ballot.^[2] A poll of likely voters conducted in June revealed that half of the city's likely voters were undecided, and that three of the candidates included in the poll, Sylvester Turner, Adrian Garcia and Chris Bell (all of whom were Democrats) were within the margin of error of the top two spots.^[3] However, the final results were significantly different from the early polling, with Independent King claiming the second runoff spot along with Turner.

Mayoral elections in Houston are biennial, with the winner being sworn in in the following January for a four-year term. The election is officially nonpartisan, although the political parties still support and endorse candidates.

With the passage of voter-approved Proposition 2, the Mayor began a four-year term effective in January 2016.

Incumbent Mayor Annise Parker, a member of the Democratic Party who had been in office since 2010, was term-limited and could not run for re-election to a fourth term in office.^[4]

During the month between the general election and the runoff, Bell endorsed King, while Parker and Garcia, as well as then-U.S. President Barack Obama, endorsed Turner.^[5]

A referendum was approved by voters in November which lengthened the mayoral term (beginning with the term up for election) from two years to four years. The referendum altered term limits from three 2-year terms to two 4-year terms.^[6]