LONGVIEW, Texas — Election season for cities and schools across East Texas is just around the corner and one of the biggest races is the Longview mayoral race.
This is the first time in nine years that Longview will have a new face leading the city. As Mayor Andy Mack’s term comes to a close, Temple Carpenter and Kristen Ishihara are running to be next mayor of Longview.
Carpenter has been District 1 city councilman in Longview since 2021. Ishihara is an attorney and former Longview District 4 city councilwoman, serving from 2014 to 2023.
One of Ishihara’s plans for the city if elected would be to continue working on the city's comprehensive plan.
“You saw 28 of our 30 priorities we were able to accomplish while I was still on city council. A lot of those were either done by city council action, and also a lot of them were part of the 2018 bond election” Ishihara said.
Ishihara also mentioned providing support to small businesses in the area.
“Committing to supporting those businesses through infrastructure, through regulations, through the city, through development," Ishihara said.
City development is also a prime platform for Carpenter's campaign.
“When I first went, ran on council three years ago, I was very involved in trying to correct and to help with some of our development issues within the city, and that's a work in progress. We have made some progress, but we're not by any means to where I think we should be," Carpenter said.
According to Carpenter, one of the most vital developments the city needs is housing.
“We are short single family houses; we are short multi-family houses. And so, it's going to be imperative as the new companies continue to come to Longview and the workforce increases, that we have housing for those people to live in town and not be forced to live in the outlying communities around the town," Carpenter said.
As they continue to campaign both Carpenter and Ishihara agree on one thing, which is continuing to grow the city of Longview.
“I want to get the city to be more focused on what I call in the campaign or what I referred to as servant leadership," Carpenter said.
"It's our role as mayor and council to carry (efforts to growing the city) out,” Ishihara said.
Early voting starts on Monday, April 22 ends on April 30 followed by Election Day on May 4.