Voters in the fast-growing city of Princeton elected a new mayor who said the city isn’t managing the population growth responsibly. He joins a cohort of challengers who ousted city elected officials in recent elections.
Eugene Escobar Jr. defeated Mayor Brianna Chacón with about 56% of the vote according to unofficial election results. Less than 1,200 of the 16,895 voters in the city participated in the runoff election.
The election went to a runoff after Chacón received 41% of the vote in her recent bid for reelection, less than the required 51% of the vote needed to avoid a runoff. Escobar was one of four candidates that filed to run against Chacón in the city’s mayoral election.
"I felt like that the city was more focused on growing and more focused on bringing in developers and bringing homes into rooftops, that they didn't really understand what that comes with,” he said.
Chacón is the third incumbent city official in Princeton to lose her seat. Council Member Terrance Johnson defeated David Kleiber in the November election with about 54% of the vote after Kleiber joked about shooting liberals in a Facebook comment. And former Council Member Marlo Obera lost his seat to Christina Todd, who received about 52% of the vote in November.
Johnson said voters want change and better management of the city's growth. Princeton is the third-fastest-growing city in the nation according to the U.S. Census.
“That statement has an asterisk on it, right?” he said. “Because we are overly populated, but we don't have the infrastructure to support that.”
Princeton issued a temporary moratorium on new housing developments in September to help slow the effects of growth. Chacón told the Texas Standard when the moratorium was issued the goal was to give city officials time to ensure the city’s resources were prepped to handle the growth.
“We do need to take a pause, take a breather to make sure that we do have the infrastructure in place, that we do have the public safety services in place — that way we can better serve all of our residents,” she said.
The moratorium, which is scheduled to last 120 days, only applies to new residential developments, not commercial developments. A local Walmart is the city’s only grocery store. According to a post on the city’s Facebook page from March, Aldi and Market Street are expected to open locations in Princeton in 2026.
Escobar said Princeton has become a stop-over town. But the new mayor said he wants to change that.
“We're trying to figure out what we can do to make Princeton a place where people want to live long term,” he said.
Escobar said there’s a lot of work for the council to do regarding the city’s massive population boom. But he said there’s an opportunity to turn things around.
“We have a lot of issues right now,” he said. “But we’re still young. We still have a lot of space to grow.”
Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.
Caroline Love is a Report For America corps member for KERA News.
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