Boykins’ mayoral bid aims to help ‘least, last’
While Houston’s other mayoral hopefuls campaigned, Councilman Dwight Boykins was mowing his yard in Riverside Terrace. It was 9 a.m. on a Monday and, with only a few weeks until early voting, a seemingly odd time for a candidate to prioritize lawn care.
Boykins sees it otherwise, a way to “stay grounded” to the community that raised him out of poverty, and that he has represented on City Council since 2014, where he has gained a reputation as a hands-on advocate not afraid to literally get his hands dirty doing some lawn care for elderly residents or impromptu gardening on a roadway median.
Now, he wants to take that style of leadership citywide.
“My goal is to use this position as mayor to let people know that there is hope,” he said. “I’m trying to help the least and the last.”
His run was rumored long before he announced it in June after he had broken with Mayor Sylvester Turner, repeatedly criticizing and questioning his one-time ally’s ongoing feud with firefighters over pay parity issues. That outspokenness has won Boykins the union’s backing, and thousands of dollars in donations.
With Election Day less than a month away, Boykins does not pose a serious threat to Turner, who according to a recent poll leads his closest challenger, Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee, by 17 points. Boykins came in at
fourth in the 12-person field, with 3.5 percent of the share of likely voters.
His “speak my mind” personality also has brought backlash: In July, he was criticized for telling teenage girls in a group of students at a youth advocacy summit to “keep their legs closed.” Boykins said he had been asked to “speak frankly” about the pitfalls for youth, including teen pregnancy.
In recent debates, though, Boykins’ voice largely has been drowned out as Buzbee, businessman Bill King and Turner increasingly trade barbs.
Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said a Boykins victory is unlikely — unless he makes it into a runoff with Turner, which Jones said would require an “implosion” by the other candidates.
Jones described Boykins as “pragmatic but not all that ideological,” which he said has had an impact on the race in spite of the councilman’s slim chances.
“At a time when things are interpreted through race, ethnicity, partisanship, Boykins has been echoing many of the critiques of Turner that Buzbee and King have made,” Jones said. “It certainly doesn’t work to Turner’s advantage because it keeps Turner from portraying the contest as purely partisan, racial or ethnic.”
Community presence
Boykins, 56, grew up with six brothers and a single mother in the South Union neighborhood in southeast Houston.
“We grew up in the church, with strong values in terms of doing what’s right and respecting people,” he said.
That Boykins has aligned himself with Houston firefighters should come as no surprise. His admiration for firefighters goes back decades. As a kid, he said, the nearby fire station was a place of refuge, where he and his brothers could finish homework and stay focused on school.
He ranks firefighters high on a list of mentors that includes local business leaders and civil rights activist Ovide Duncantell, the founder of Houston’s Martin Luther King Jr. parade who died last year.
He graduated from Stephen F. Austin High School, studied business at Texas Southern University, then worked for decades as a banker and federal lobbyist on education and transportation issues. His wife, Genora, is a retired lawyer. The couple have no children but own a 12-acre property in Conroe with horses that Boykins jokingly counts as his kids.
As a councilman, Boykins maintains an active presence in his district, holding what Jones calls a “notable” amount of community meetings. Boykins boasts that has secured more than $150 million in economic development and infrastructure projects in the largely African-American district.
District D, on the city’s south side, increasingly is being targeted by developers for high-rise apartments or shopping centers. Boykins said balancing the community’s needs with fears of gentrification has been a staple of his tenure. For example, he said, he helped spur the development of an H-E-B grocery store in the area, but also emphasizes beautification and infrastructure programs.
At council meetings, he challenges political allies, jokes with opponents and extols programs for the disadvantaged, often through impassioned speeches about his childhood or stories from recent community meetings.
On a sweltering Tuesday afternoon last month, Boykins was on his hands and knees, shaping plants and pulling weeds on a median of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The gardening was preceded by an impromptu trash pickup and a visit to the H-E-B construction site, where Boykins talked with a site manager about a worker he had helped get a job there.
It is that type of involvement that Boykins said has gained him the trust of those in his community, some of whom said they have felt neglected by Houston’s leaders.
“We just want someone who is here, who you can put your hands on and speak to,” said Jimmy Stafford Jr., a District D resident who approached Boykins as the councilman stood up from his weeding.
Stafford talked with Boykins about issues involving his mother’s home, and minutes later was on the phone with the councilman’s staff.
Constituents like Stafford are central to Boykins’ campaign, even as he has mirrored many of the critiques Buzbee and King level at Turner. The three also have a similar solution to the city’s financial woes, which they say could be addressed by more scrutiny of department staffing and spending through zerobased budgeting.
The councilman is quick, however, to distance himself from King and Buzbee, who he said are using “fear tactics” to mobilize voters. Boykins sees himself as a bridge builder between the city and its most vulnerable residents, and he brags that his campaign has knocked on more than 170,000 doors.
‘Where you end up’
As mayor, Boykins wants to divert more money to parks and neighborhood programs, partner with outside groups for afterschool tutoring programs, and increase police presence in the neighborhoods.
He also has promised to negotiate a contract between the city and its fire union within the first 60 days of his election, which he said would be financed in part by scrutinizing spending in other departments.
Boykins also has floated the idea of allowing Houston police officers to take squad cars home if they spend the first and last 30 minutes of their shifts patrolling neighborhoods. He views it as a way of increasing community policing.
Police union leaders for years have said the Houston Police Department is understaffed and underfunded, but they were lukewarm on Boykins’ ideas.
“I don’t know where these extra cars are going to come from,” said Joe Gamaldi, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, which is backing Turner.
HPD’s staffing and budget issues also likely would complicate Boykins’ plan to tackle homelessness in the city. The councilman said he would like to see more partnership between city and county facilities to help those suffering from mental health issues, while also increasing law enforcement in areas with high rates of homelessness.
Michael Nichols heads the Houston Homeless Coalition, a nonprofit that works with other groups both in Harris County and surrounding areas to get people into housing and help. He was skeptical about Boykins’ approach, saying leaders need to focus on changes at the state level.
Boykins also wants private banks to become more involved in disaster recovery in a bid to expedite the flow of funding to local contractors and homebuilders after destructive storms, such as Hurricane Harvey or Tropical Storm Imelda, which would affect the supply of affordable housing units.
Boykins is fine with that. At a debate last week, he said that the city should stop focusing on affordable, multi-unit properties, and instead build single-family homes on vacant lots. He recalled the “best day of his life” — when his family and mother moved into a home after years in the projects — and said that “God wants us to own property.”
The crowd laughed. Boykins seemed serious. He often chalks his life up to “God’s grace” and, because of that, feels a certain level of divine responsibility to help where he can. His campaign, he said, is less about policy details as it is about making a case for the city’s most vulnerable.
“It’s not where you come from,” he often says. “It’s where you end up.”
Boykins believes he’ll be mayor. And if he’s wrong? “I’m going to the ranch, riding my horse, putting on my Wranglers and calling it a day,” he said. “Just kidding — my wife and I will continue to serve this city.
“But we anticipate winning.”