VICTORY for Ivy Taylor and San Antonio

San Antonio has a first ever elected Black female mayor, Ivy Taylor. Mayor Taylor accompanied by her husband, Rodney, and daughter, Morgan, walked into the jammed packed room filled with enthusiastic supporters at the Wyndham Garden near downtown San Antonio on Saturday night, June 13. Everyone in the room had high expectations that Taylor was probably going to win the early vote and this would carry her to victory. As it turns out, Taylor won the early vote by 3,257 votes and something totally unexpected, Taylor also won the Election Day count by 74 votes giving her a total win with 50,659 to Leticia Van de Putte’s 47,328 for the Run-Off Election.

Taylor’s assets, her appeal to the people of faith, and her genuine interest for the people of San Antonio contributed to her victory. Her qualifications as a city planner and her work with the city council for District 2, as opposed to a career politician backed by her political allies, galvanized her supporters. Taylor knew from the beginning that the race was not about her as this was something she repeated to her fans prior to her win. She announced early that she was not going to promote a political party agenda. It was about San Antonio cutting loose from the ‘status quo’, about turning San Antonio into a non-partisan city. It was about conservatives finally having a say in their city government. June 13 was the day voters cried out and discarded the ‘old’ very partisan way of doing business. As Mayor Taylor said in her opening remarks to her Saturday night audience, “Do you realize we have defeated a political machine?”

This wasn’t an easy win by any means going up against a favored 24 year hard core political progressive state-elected Democrat, Van de Putte, who is used to bullying her way to the top. Conservative voters remembered Van de Putte’s New Mexico escapade and her standing alongside Wendy Davis at the Texas capitol on aborting an unborn after 20 weeks. This did not sit well with the large Christian community in San Antonio. Taylor voted against the 2013 NDO Nondiscrimination Ordinance which passed on an 8-3 vote,  signaling a wakeup call to the Christian community. The Evangelical pastors and Christian lay people together with the solid conservatives were Taylor’s strongest supporters. It was a coming together for a common goal, to bring San Antonio’s city government back to the people.

It is my opinion that San Antonio can be united under Mayor Taylor because she is a non-partisan minority mayor in a Hispanic minority majority and she is a conservative wanting the best for all the people of the city of St. Anthony.

The Rivard Report, “Taylor Becomes San Antonio’s First Elected Black Mayor”, described San Antonio as two cities which in many instances is true. The progressive elected official makes it a point to keep constituents in the dark about the bills being passed to their detriment. Hispanics are by nature fiscally and socially conservative and rely on either the media or their elected official for the truth. The media in San Antonio has worked hard to undercut conservative values, especially the social values. So while it is true that the older Anglo is more politically astute it is because they expect their elected officials to follow through with their promises. The truth would go a long way to unify the city.

The Rivard Report: Ultimately, what they will conclude is San Antonio is two cities. The general population is minority-majority, largely Hispanic. The city’s voting population, however, Anglo-dominant, older and more politically conservative than the general population.

Gilbert Garcia’s article, “Van de Putte got more than she bargained for” from the Express News admitted that he and the media ‘underestimated’ how many local voters had a negative view of Van de Putte. We all know that the Express News is a progressive political news media. San Antonians were fiercely against the NDO and Mayor Castro and eight members of the council did not listen. My suggestion is that if the Express News can’t ‘read’ their readership, they should bow out of endorsing candidates.

Express News: The truth is many of us (including those of us in the media) underestimated how many local voters had a negative view of Van de Putte. In Taylor, they saw an anti-Van de Putte: someone with no history in partisan races, admired by her loyalists because she doesn’t even pretend to have the skills of a political backslapper.

Underestimating the voting power of the conservative proved fatal to Van de Putte’s mayoral aspirations.

The Red Report
Sonja Harris
Pray, Fight, NEVER GIVE UP!