Mayoral candidates reflect on their pasts
They both came from humble beginnings. One from from rural East Texas. The other from Acres Homes.
They were both high school standouts. One graduated as valedictorian, while the other was one of just three in his class to go off to college.
They both had successful careers and moved into big houses.
The similarities between Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and his 2019 challenger, millionaire lawyer Tony Buzbee, are few, but their early experiences have parallels.
As they head into Saturday’s runoff election for mayor, Turner and Buzbee made time to reflect on how some of those early life experiences helped shape their views on politics, work and family.
Turner, the sixth of nine children, decided what he wanted his future to look like after watching America’s first televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960.
That determination propelled him through high school — where he graduated at the top of his class — the University of Houston and then Harvard Law, which was not his first choice.
Buzbee also knew early on that he wanted something more out of life than working at the tire factory in his small town of Queen City near the Arkansas border.
As a kid, Buzbee would hop in his dad’s truck Saturday mornings and they’d drive the old country roads, collecting beer cans to sell for extra
money. After a few hours, they’d stop at a bar where the elder Buzbee would shoot pool as his son waited and watched, learning the rules of the game and sometimes other lessons.
In high school, a man from town took an interest in Buzbee after seeing him play football. That man
took him to watch his first Division I game at Texas A&M University — a trip that turned out to be one of his life’s defining moments.
Hear to Buzbee and Turner reflect on their lives and their struggles on the Houston Chronicle podcast, Looped In. Listen at www.houstonchronicle.com/LoopedIn.