Joe Panzarella and Nick Hellyar campaigns
Joe Panzarella, left, and Nick Hellyar are competing in a special election runoff for the District C seat on the Houston City Council on May 16, 2026.
For some voters in the Houston City Council’s District C, the runoff election on Saturday is their sixth election since November.
Guillermo Canizales is one of them. He lives in the overlap of District C and the 18th Congressional District, which also had a special election runoff this year.
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“To me, it’s kind of exciting,” Canizales said.
Many voters in the district — which stretches from the Heights through Montrose to Meyerland — do not share his excitement.
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In the 2023 general election — when the mayor and all 16 city council seats were on the ballot — District C saw more voters than any of the other 10 city council districts, with nearly 38,000 people casting ballots.
In the April special election between seven candidates, there were only about 9,400 voters — about a quarter of the general election turnout.
Those who vote in the special election runoff between Joe Panzarella and Nick Hellyar could soon head back to the polls for the Republican or Democratic primary runoffs on May 26.
“People just don’t care anymore,” Canizales said. “And I just wish that people would care. … We have to go out and vote and do something. Otherwise, we’re not going to change anything.”
Usually, voters in District C do care.
“District C normally is the highest turnout district in the city,” said political scientist Mark Jones with Rice University. But now, “We’re looking at a race where only the most driven and politically interested people are actually participating.”
The current trend means it’s difficult to make predictions, according to Jones.
“Most of the metrics we tend to use to try to predict who’s going to win based on either partisanship or ideology … is difficult because we’re dealing with such a rarefied group of people who are actually casting ballots,” Jones said.
For those who’ve been paying attention, the two candidates in the runoff already have well-known platforms.
Panzarella, a community organizer, wants to boost home affordability and lean into multimodal transportation on city streets. He led the first election round with about 33% of the vote.
Hellyar, a former City Hall staffer, is focused on core city services, from police to parks. In April, he trailed with about 23%.
As of the most recent campaign finance reports filed on May 6, Panzarella had raised more than $156,000 over the course of the race, trailing Hellyar, who brought in about $176,000. But in the space between the special election in April and the runoff this month, Panzarella outraised Hellyar with approximately $71,000, while Hellyar received about $63,000.
When it comes to recent developments at City Hall, the candidates differ on two key issues.
Last month, Mayor John Whitmire and the city council clawed back a measure intended to curtail the police department’s coordination with federal immigration authorities. The move came after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to revoke public safety grants.
Like the current District C council member Abbie Kamin, Panzarella would have voted to keep the measure in place while seeking a legal fight with Abbott.
“I think Houstonians really want to see a strong, local, Houston-led government, and right now Governor Abbott is kind of having the final say, and I don’t think folks agree with that,” Panzarella said. “I do think there needs to be more work done to protect our immigrant community here in Houston.”
Hellyar would have joined the majority, deferring to the council members of Districts H and I that cover heavily Latino areas in East Houston.
“I grew up working in Latino politics here in Houston, so on issues when it comes up in the Latino community, I’m going to defer to the district council members that really see how everything is going on on the ground in their districts,” Hellyar said. “I would have stood with them in their vote for the amendment as well.”
Whoever wins will be sworn in just before the vote on Whitmire’s proposed budget, which includes a monthly fee related to solid waste services.
Panzarella has questions.
“I’d like to learn a little bit more on how this is really going to have a meaningful, positive impact on trash pickup,” Panzarella said.
Hellyar, meanwhile, supports joining all other major Texas cities that have a garbage fee.
“We never want to raise taxes, but it’s always something that the city had needed to get the budget straight,” Hellyar said.
During early voting, the Harris County Clerk’s Office received about 6,600 ballots. Election Day is Saturday, when 20 polling locations will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m.