Group working to recall Houston Mayor John Whitmire says it will start collecting signatures next week

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Could Houston voters soon decide the fate of Houston Mayor John Whitmire?

Experts say it’s an extremely long shot, but a group of Houstonians will start collecting signatures next week to remove the mayor from office.

Mayor Whitmire has been in office for more than a year and a half.

Recall for Houston was formed soon after he took office, and you might see its members out and about collecting signatures around town starting on Oct. 6.

“I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t worried about the future of the city,” Alejandro Alegria with Recall for Houston said. “Whitmire has already done an immeasurable amount of damage.”

Recall for Houston criticizes the mayor’s deal to pay Houston firefighters $650 million in back pay to settle a long-running legal dispute.

Members also cite Whitmire’s controversial transportation policies, like removing bike lanes and changing plans that would have expanded bus routes.

But, according to the most recent survey from the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs, 59% of Houstonians approve of Whitmire’s job performance, while 41% disapprove.

The poll shows Whitmire is especially popular among Houstonians aged 55 and older and those who identify as Republican.

“This recall effort is likely to fail at the ballot box, but it would be a distraction,” Mark Jones, the co-principal investigator on the survey, said. “So the mayor would have to focus his efforts in the spring of 2026 on the recall election.”

Perhaps the biggest hurdle for the group’s effort is that, based on the city’s current population, members would need to collect more than 63,000 signatures within 30 days just to get the recall on the ballot.

That’s more than 2,000 signatures a day.

All of those signatures must be from registered voters in the city of Houston.

“They’ll have to probably collect about 100,000 signatures to be certain that they have enough valid signatures during the 30-day window,” Jones explained. “What will happen is that you’ll have people that will sign but they won’t be registered voters or they won’t be registered in the city of Houston.”

The mayor’s office didn’t respond to ABC13’s request for comment on Thursday.

In the past, he has called the effort silly, but said he welcomes any review of his work.

ABC13 has spoken to multiple political experts as well as the city secretary. They said they cannot remember a time a recall petition against a mayor or council member was successful in the City of Houston.

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