Cameron Jacox
Dec 13, 2022
As the fastest-growing major city in the country for the better part of the last 2 decades, Austin is undoubtedly a city many want to live in. Politically, much talk has abounded about Austin being uber-liberal within conservative Texas, or colloquially the “blueberry in the tomato soup”. What many don’t understand through these surface-level comparisons is that Austin has a far more libertarian history than a progressive one, and there’s continued evidence of this in the midterm and local results at all levels of government.
After the city’s first and exceptionally brief flirt with far-left-inspired politicians in 2018, Austin has snapped back sharply into its historic spot as a uniquely libertarian-leaning metropolis. After sweeping all local elected offices in 2018 with several partisan and self-declared socialists, Democrats proceeded to listen to the most extreme among them, most notably Greg Casar and Mayor Steve Adler, and began instituting radical, disruptive, and deeply unpopular legislation. They kicked it off by making the city an open-air drug scene for all comers and a campground with “camp anywhere” lawlessness all while defunding the police by over 30%, leading to a massive deterioration in the quality of life.
Frustrations mounted, with Austinites and a new local political action group forcing challenges to ultra-progressive policies onto the ballot. Ballot initiatives to end deregulated homeless camping citywide won with the largest-ever non-election year turnout by a 16% margin despite all local elected leftist Democrats campaigning against it.
“We have to analyze who’s moved here,” Eugene Sepulveda, CEO of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, explains. “Even though they’re younger than me and certainly hipper than me and cooler than me, they are more libertarian and fiscally conservative. And conservative from the public safety standpoint too.”
Citizens later got a reversal of the police defunding placed on a special ballot, while the far-left Mayor, Steve Adler’s approval ratings plummeted. In 2020, Several City Council races in far-left hands went to runoffs, with one City of Austin seat flipped by Republican Mackenzie Kelly and another Republican, Jennifer Virden, losing by a narrow 51-49% margin (compared to the 64% the Democrat had won with in her prior race).
In 2022, Austin resoundingly rejected the progressive mayor model as well. After years of frustration with the quality-of-life issues created by mayor Steve Adler, who catered to the farthest left of the city council, voters continued to course correct. The left-wing Mayoral candidates received just 42.5% of the general election vote, down from 70.8% 4 years prior. The 4 candidates in the center or center-right received the majority of the mayoral vote. No single candidate won an outright majority, leading to a runoff between a moderate State Senator and a far-left State House Rep. The moderate won the runoff, too, with over 50%.
Voters responded to the two candidates who promised to fight crime, fund police, enforce the new voter-approved law banning homeless camps, and lower taxes by giving them a strong majority of the vote. The vote total for the leftist candidates was one of the lowest ever vote shares for liberal candidates of any major city in the United States for a mayoral race. So much for progressive Austin. The winner, Kirk Watson, wrapped his campaign focus on bread and butter center-right issues “tackling the rising cost of living, homelessness, public safety, and transportation.”
On city council, far-left incumbents got hammered. District 1 Councilor Natasha Harper-Madison, who represents the far left of the council, just barely avoided a runoff with 53.2% of the vote. 4 years ago she won her seat with 71.9%.
Austin Monthly’s liberal editorial board recently opined about progressive ex-city councilor Greg Casar that, “[s]ure, Casar’s rise, paired with the city’s massive population growth and increased diversity, might hint at the potential for a more progressive electorate. Yet election results indicate otherwise…When push comes to shove, though, it has always been a city addicted to the middle.”
This center-right moderation should not come as a surprise for those who know Austin, but rather the aberration of the 2018 to 2020 period should be seen more clearly for what it was, which was a reaction to Donald Trump, not as a repudiation of Austin’s longtime libertarian leanings.
The reason that libertarian-leaning founders, comedians, stars, and everyday people are flocking to Austin is for its open-mindedness towards all ideas, not San Francisco-eque progressivism. Those moving like Elon Musk, Larry Ellison (Oracle), Joe Lonsdale (8VC), Joe Rogan, and so many others, are doing so precisely because of that. Upwardly mobile, optimistic cities shun monopolistic politics that shut out competing ideas.
In keeping with Austin’s libertarian leanings, in 2016 Austinites gave Gary Johnson the largest number of votes for the Libertarian of any county in Texas (Austin has done so every year).
Austin has always been an open-minded place, and that’s why people love it so much. Neighbors here are more likely to “agree to disagree”. In fact, contrary to what Texas Republicans like to claim, Californians are not moving to Austin en-masse to “make it San Francisco”. A recent study indicated this: Of those hundreds of thousands migrating from California to Texas, 57% lean Republican and just 27% liberal. People aren’t moving to Austin because want more of the same, they’re moving to Austin because they love Austin. The share of movers from such states increased dramatically as a result of the draconian years-long “lockdowns” in those states. Fleeing is perhaps a better term than moving.
Austin Monthly’s progressive editors validate these points as well: “When coupled with the influx of wealthy newcomers like podcast titan Joe Rogan and investor Joe Lonsdale, as well as the “anti-cancel culture” of the proposed University of Austin, the city’s progressive reputation has seemingly taken a back seat of late. “We have to analyze who’s moved here,” Eugene Sepulveda, CEO of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, explains. “Even though they’re younger than me and certainly hipper than me and cooler than me, they are more libertarian and fiscally conservative. And conservative from the public safety standpoint too.” As of this writing, add to that list of notable newcomers libertarian-leaning Elon Musk and his companies, and Larry Ellison’s Oracle relocation, the most right-leaning of the top 10 tech companies, whose headquarters moved from California to a massive parcel of land on downtown Austin’s ladybird lake.
It’s time for Austin to celebrate our growth, celebrate our diversity of thought and opinion, and work to keep our city the weird, open-minded place that everyone so wishes to emulate where new ideas thrive and people find work-life balance. No political party should have a monopoly on a great city, and Austin is a truly great city.