The potential field for the open Fort Worth mayor’s seat continues to narrow, with the decision of one potential major candidate against running.
Longtime Fort Worth banker Tim Carter, current chairman of the Texas Wesleyan University board, said in an email message Monday in response to an inquiry from the magazine that he decided against running.
“After much consideration, I have decided not to run for Mayor and will endorse Mattie Parker,” Carter said Monday morning in an email to the magazine.
Parker, former chief of staff to Mayor Betsy Price, who announced two weeks ago she would not seek re-election in May, announced Friday she would run for the open seat.
City Council members Brian Byrd, of the West Side District 3; and Ann Zadeh, of District 9, which includes the Near Southside, South Fort Worth, downtown, Oakhurst, West 7th, and part of TCU also are running. Deborah Peoples, chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, who ran against Price in 2019 and won more than 16,000 votes to Price’s 21,000-plus, is running.
Other candidates are Mike Haynes, Joyce Mitchell, and Chris Rector.
Dee Kelly, Jr., the Fort Worth lawyer who was widely believed to be running if Price decided not to run, threw the race open in announcing more than a week ago he would not run. Entrepreneur Leonard Firestone, rumored to interested in mayor, told Fort Worth Inc. in an interview he would run for the District 7 council seat being vacated by the retiring Dennis Shingleton. But Firestone told the magazine later he decided against running for any seat.
State Rep. Ramon Romero, Jr., of Fort Worth’s District 90, another potential major candidate, has said he’s running poll to discern his name identification in a prospective mayor’s race – but wants to focus on the opening of the Texas Legislative session.