Donald Trump won Ector County, which includes Odessa, with more than 70 percent of the vote.
— a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies defining Texas, produced by Texas Tribune journalists living in communities across the state.It was a political mailer, one of many deployed this fall in Odessa , the West Texas city in the heart of the oil-rich Permian Basin.
While Stoker and his allies had hoped the local election would be about infrastructure and city services, his opponent attempted to shift the battlefield to national political issues. Across the country, Republicans were running countless attack ads on Democrats for their support of transgender people.
Ray Stoker was a respected attorney who, in 1985, was appointed chairman of the Texas State Highway and Public Transportation Commission. He later became chair of the newly created Texas Department of Transportation, among other state appointments. The job with Food 2 Kids, Stoker said, had been the start of the civic engagement he had sought for years in Austin and Waco but had not found.
While he lost the race, he remembers it fondly. It had been the last friendly election he remembers in the city.Two years later, the Odessa City Council would undergo a dramatic transformation. Stoker and his peers were shocked as the local GOP broke with tradition to endorse candidates — Javier Joven, Denise Swanner and Mark Matta — who promised to outlaw abortion travel and other conservative policies that were outside the norm of city politics.
Kelm, who also presides over the Ector County Republican Women’s Club, added that abortion and LGBTQ issues should be left to the state, not the city council. “Cal Hendrick and Craig Stoker both promote LGBTQ's agenda, are pro-abortion, anti-Israel, for gay marriage, and would have you believe the same or be called a hater and a bigot,” one post said. Tisdale also accused a local church of promoting support for the town’s LGBTQ community.
“I think the results would have been closer and might have even been different if they were running under partisan labels,” Emmert said.Civic leaders said they hope that after years of prioritizing social issues, the new City Council will take on growing infrastructure needs and stabilize City Hall. They want Odessa, known for its blue-collar workforce, to be competitive and grow its economy during a banner period for the oil and gas industry.
Texas Politics Texas Policy Texas Government Politics Donald Trump LGBTQ Odessa Ector County
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