AUSTIN, Texas — On Friday, progressive candidate Zohaib Qadri announced his run for Austin City Council, District 9, a seat currently held by Kathie Tovo.
In a release, Qadri said he is running as a champion for the student residents at the University of Texas, for young renters and professionals in Downtown Austin and families in Bouldin Creek.
Qadri’s website lists several endorsements, including Reps. Sheryl Cole and James Talarico, Austin Community College trustees Julie Ann Nitsch and Sean Hassan, and community activists Mike Siegel and Pooja Sethi. His campaign said it had raised more than $9,000 since the announcement on Friday.
“For too long, we’ve had a city council that thinks of housing affordability just in terms of Austin’s unhoused population and hasn’t moved far enough to address those needs or the causes that underline them,” Qadri said in a release. “Housing affordability is part of what helps keep people from finding themselves on the street to begin with. In a district where the majority of the residents can’t afford to own their own home, it’s time we had the perspective of someone who rents and doesn’t just serve wealthy landlords.”
Tovo was elected to City Council in 2011 and served on the last at-large city council before she was reelected in 2014 as District 9 councilmember. In 2018, she was reelected to Austin City Council for a third time.
Councilmembers serve a maximum of two four-year terms. Tovo’s term ends on Jan. 6, 2023. Election Day is on Nov. 8, 2022.
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