Rising unaffordability has made living in Austin harder and harder for communities to hold onto, but it doesn’t have to be this way. 

I am committed to preserving and producing affordable housing and protecting Austinites from displacement with a track record of:

• Working collaboratively with developers to build hundreds of affordable units of housing including quality dense development close to transit, healthy food options, good schools, and parks

• Defending the rights of homeowners and tenants to negotiate new development and mitigate displacement

• Co-creating and implementing city policies and programs to keep residents from being displaced, and to create new housing opportunities.

We will preserve existing affordable housing by:

• Creating policies that keep us from losing affordable units, 

• Expanding tax incentives. 

• Maintaining the affordable housing units that we can’t rebuild.

• Rehabilitating existing units to be safe and climate resilient by leveraging new funding sources, including federal grants.

We will produce more deeply affordable and mixed-income developments by:

•  Engaging the public in land use conversations alongside our community developers.

• Scaling Community Land Trusts.

We will protect Austinites from displacement by: 

• Expanding protections for renters.

• Fighting harmful policies that worsen the rent gap.

• Negotiating more investments in anti-displacement efforts.

Together, we will implement community-centered solutions to combat our affordability crisis because the hardworking communities that contribute every day to our city deserve to be able to continue to live in Austin as it grows.

Read more about Carmen’s policies for REAL affordable housing.

I am committed to supporting the hardworking Austinites who wake up every day and make this city run. 

As a former City Commissioner, I have advocated for:

• Increasing affordable housing options for teachers, emergency responders and service industry workers.

• Expanding childcare subsidies for working families.

• Providing robust, reliable, and sustainable transit options expanding beyond our city center.

As Mayor I will support our city’s 13,000 employees by:

• Increasing Austin’s minimum wage to a living wage of $22 per hour. 

• Supporting the implementation of onsite childcare. 

• Allowing teleworking and flexible work schedules, which will improve the quality of life for our workers, reduce traffic for all of us, and decrease our carbon emissions. 

I will improve the working conditions of all Austinites by:

• Supporting local businesses that pay living wages, provide health insurance and sick leave, and support healthy workplace cultures by prioritizing them for economic development programs and incentives. 

The times are changing and for Austin to prosper, our labor practices must too. 

I am ready to work alongside Austinites to champion innovative and forward-thinking solutions to address the changing market forces and societal pressures workers face.

Together we can build an Austin that works for all of us. 

Austinites deserve better than the current state of our city’s homelessness crisis.

The current administration's mishandling of homelessness has resulted in millions wasted on the Marshalling Yard shelter, which fails to meet residents' needs. The current mayor also pushed for the notorious McKinsey contract that would have paid outside consultants $3 million for a report on homelessness, despite our own recent shelter assessment.

Austin needs real leadership to tackle our homelessness crisis. 

As a community organizer, I have supported initiatives like VOCAL-TX’s successful push to fix the Rapid Rehousing Voucher system to ensure these vouchers support those in need, not force them back onto the streets after they expire. 

As a former city Commissioner, I have prioritized funding for community organizations with proven track records of providing effective homelessness prevention and response.

As Mayor, I will:

• Stabilize housing affordability by preserving existing affordable housing.

• Champion development that produces truly affordable housing for residents at risk of homelessness.

• Fix dysfunctional prevention systems to intervene before individuals lose housing.

• Invest in community organizations with a track record of supporting residents and collaborating with neighbors.

• Support additional permanent supportive housing with wraparound support services.

• Scale successful community programs including mobile housing navigation, peer support, and collaborative security measures to address immediate needs effectively.

I will ensure that our taxpayer dollars are not wasted on consultants and ineffective contractors, but reallocated to more effective, humane, and safe efforts, informed by frontline city staff and organizations serving Austinites facing potential and long-term homelessness every single day. 

Together, we can build an Austin where everyone has access to safe and stable housing.

Every Austinite deserves to feel safe in our city.

Safety isn’t just about policing—it’s about having the right resources and infrastructure in place to prevent crime before it happens, appropriate responses to 911 when emergencies occur, and public services that ensure our basic services are met. And police contracts aren't just about funding—they require strong metrics on hiring, training, retention, and accountable response. 

Our mayor has failed to bring directly impacted community members—including our first reponders—into a number of key conversations, and has not responded to community members pleading for interventions that truly reduce crime. 

I know that community-based inititatives and collaboration with city officials is the best way to reduce crime and keep communities safe. As a nonprofit leader, I worked with neighbors and police to reduce response time and decrease crime rates by up to 35% in Southeast Austin by improving lighting and park infrastructure, and creating programs that fostered community connection.

As a community organizer, I supported the citizen-led Austin Police Oversight Act and interviewed candidates for Chief of Police, where I wasn't afraid to ask the hard questions about their beliefs on transparency, accountability, officer morale, and community engagement.

As Mayor, I will take a holistic approach to public safety by:

• Promoting dialogue between law enforcement and community advocates.

• Supporting increased responses from EMS, mental health professionals, and crisis responders to calls requiring their expertise.

• Supporting the implementation of oversight measures such as the Austin Police Oversight Act, that increase accountability and build community-police trust. 

• Enhancing our response systems to ensure timely assistance for all

Together, we can build a safer Austin for all of us.

All families deserve to thrive in Austin.

But from the rising costs of both childcare and family-friendly housing, many are struggling.
Our current administration has prioritized deals with developers that have depleted green spaces and affordable housing, threatening the safety, infrastructure, and overall quality of life for families in our neighborhoods.

While the current mayor has overlooked these issues, I’ve been on the ground, protecting and uplifting our communities. For 15 years as a community organizer and former City Commissioner, I’ve worked with parents, childcare providers, teachers, and neighbors across Austin to drive real, community-led change, supporting thousands of families by:

• Increasing access to affordable, quality childcare, through expanding subsidies at the county level.

• Helping home-based and center-based childcare providers serve healthy foods, increase nature-based play, and provide shaded play areas.

• Achieving safer routes to school with improved pedestrian crossings, sidewalks, and safety features.

• Securing fitness and nutrition improvements on school campuses and in nearby parks.

• Supporting multilingual collaborative spaces where parents can team up to create positive change that improve their families health.

• Championing the Family Stabilization Grant to support low-income families to maintain their housing and increase their earning power.

As Mayor, I am committed to:

• Creating deeply affordable, family-friendly housing.

• Supporting homelessness prevention programs, like the Family Stabilization Grant, that keep families housed.

• Expanding access to affordable, quality childcare by advocating for increased funding and subsidies.

• Supporting telework options and onsite childcare for City of Austin employees to help working families thrive.

Together, we can build a healthier, stronger future for Austin’s families.

I am committed to working alongside Austinites to drive necessary change at Austin Energy, lower utility rates, improve reliability, and protect the environment.

Our current mayor has failed to lead with transparency and manage Austin Energy responsibly. Instead of implementing the Electric Utility Commission’s (EUC) expert-informed community stakeholder recommendations—which focused on increasing reliability, reducing utility rates, and divesting from fossil fuels—his administration wasted valuable time and taxpayer dollars on consultants who pushed for a gas plant in East Austin despite community opposition. The mayor dropped the gas plant priority, but delayed our divestment from the Fayette coal plant to 2029, keeping us from meeting our climate equity goals. 

Our energy bills are rising due to the current administration’s mismanagement and outdated policies, which have delayed our progress toward clean energy and deepened our dependence on fossil fuels.

Austinites cannot afford to continue down this path.

Austin Energy is one of our city’s greatest assets—we own our utility, and it’s time we put it back in the hands of the people.

When I was a kid, Austin had utility elections which empowered advocates to educate our communities to make informed decisions about our energy future. These elections helped us make smart investments in renewable energy, like solar and wind. The current mayor stopped having these elections back in the late 90s, silencing Austinites’ voices in these critical decisions. This September, under his leadership, the council attempted to eliminate utility elections altogether through a charter amendment, one that several council members likely didn’t understand and weren’t given time to discuss. Thankfully, this effort was blocked in court because the public wasn’t appropriately notified, but this shows just how far he is willing to go to silence us.

As Mayor, I will restore utility elections to build public trust in Austin Energy.I will protect our natural resources and lower utility bills by:

• Implementing the EUC’s recommendations for lowering utility bills, increasing reliability, and transition to clean energy.

• Investing in clean energy solutions that reduce costs for residents, decrease our carbon emissions, and lessen our reliance on fossil fuels.

• Ending wasteful spending and ensuring Austinites—not special interests—guide our energy decisions.

• Holding Austin Energy leadership accountable for prioritizing solutions that benefit all ratepayers.

• Collaborating with community experts and stakeholders to ensure Austin Energy makes data-driven, community-centered decisions that protect our environment and prioritize long-term sustainability.

Austin’s energy future is at a critical crossroads. 

The current administration has stalled Austin’s progress toward sustainability and driven up costs by ignoring community expert input, wasting millions on fiscally and environmentally irresponsible special interest driven projects, and prolonging our reliance on fossil fuels. 

I am asking for your vote this November to drive bold, community-led solutions that benefit all Austin Energy ratepayers. 

Together, we can make decisions that ensure Austin’s energy is affordable, reliable, and sustainable.

All Austinites, including our city’s animals, deserve a high quality of life. 

Unfortunately, our current mayor has ignored the crisis at our Animal Center, failing to address the lack of leadership, broken protocols, wasteful spending and neglected partnerships that have become a crises:

• No intake for stray dogs

• Overcrowded shelter with animals from outside Austin

• Poor shelter conditions, overwhelmed staff, and frustrated volunteers.

Despite community outcry and a no-confidence vote from the Animal Services Commission two years ago, our current Mayor hasn’t delivered answers or solutions and refuses to engage with the countless advocates working tirelessly to address the issues. We have a $21 million budget and a dedicated volunteer base ready to help the City of Austin use it more effectively, but no action has been taken.

As Mayor, I will work alongside Austinites, staff, volunteers, and advocates to:

• Prioritize local animal services over out-of-town intake

• Reopen intake for local animals

• Partner with volunteers and the community to improve adoptions, including online intake for prospective adopters

• Reallocate funds to critical needs as identified by staff and volunteers

• Reevaluate our status as a “no-kill” city with budget transparency and harm reduction as top priority.

Austin is facing extreme weather more frequently, presenting our communities with unprecedented challenges. I have a proven track record of collaborating with community leaders, frontline city staff, and technical experts to modernize outdated infrastructure, improve disaster preparedness, and strengthen Austin's climate resilience. 

Over the past six years, I have worked with communities across Austin, the Office of Sustainability, and various city departments—including the Office of Resilience, which took years to establish but was dismantled in the past two years—to ensure that our city is prepared to respond to and recover from climate shocks and stressors.

As a former City Commissioner, I was instrumental in guiding the city’s Resilience Hubs efforts, which involved organizing with Austinites impacted by extreme weather and working with city staff on emergency cooling and warming shelters. I also developed neighborhood preparedness plans for communities at risk of fire, flood, heat, and winter storms, and held the city accountable for maintaining infrastructure and facilities to ensure they were ready for such emergencies.

Despite the well-documented needs of our critical infrastructure, the current administration’s approach is outdated and fails to address these evolving environmental hazards.They are approving development that increases fire, flooding, and heat risks, and deprioritizing the resilience efforts of the past decade that are crucial to ensure our safety and quality of life.

Austin needs accountable, proactive leadership that will prevent expensive problems in the future and spend down our existing investments without inflating our cost of living. As Mayor, I will identify innovative strategies, leverage new funding opportunities, and draw on community wisdom and academic expertise to ensure our communities are safe and resilient to mitigate future harm, loss of life, and damage to property. The federal government is offering hundreds of millions of dollars to cities to update their infrastructure, housing, and green spaces. I will pursue these and other such funds to implement improvements so that our infrastructure and our systems can anticipate, prepare, and respond to natural disasters and climate shocks and stressors. By continuing to collaborate with frontline communities affected by extreme weather, I will ensure that we spend our resources wisely and equitably, so that Austinites most impacted by these events benefit from these investments.

From strengthening our backup systems that support our running water and electrical utilities, to collaborating with the city departments, agencies and community organizations that meet the needs of our residents in times of crisis—I will do what it takes to protect our residents.

We're at a crossroads in Austin's history. Working and middle-class households have been priced out due to rising rents and taxes while Austin has given billions of dollars in entitlements away to large investors for company headquarters and developments on our public lands. Climate disaster paired with politicians who put power before people has forced Austinites to face dangerous circumstances. Our progressive values have brought on the wrath of our Governor and state lawmakers, who have worked to stifle our voices and undermine our progress. But time and time again in the face of unaffordability, and attacks on our local control, Austinites have banded together to defend our home.

I am running for Mayor because Austinites deserve a Mayor who will fight alongside them to face these challenges. Now is the time for bold, new, and accountable leadership.

Our municipal dollars are precious and must be re-invested into our communities. We can’t afford any more no-strings giveaways, subsidies to corporate investors, or backroom real estate deals. It’s time that every day Austinites get our fair share from these deals: more affordable housing units and parkland dedication, investments in our drainage and other critical infrastructure, and innovative partnerships that support the economic growth of our local businesses and budding entrepreneurs.

Together, we can make a new deal for all Austinites.

As Mayor I will ensure that all Austinites have a say instead of allowing special interests to continue to decide our future. Unlike the current administration, I will not sell out our communities to big businesses, and politicians in backroom deals for political gain. I will not relent in protecting our local control. My leadership will draw on the wisdom of our community members and learn from our history to ensure that Austin leverages our rich economy to carry out our promises of affordability, climate-readiness, reliable infrastructure, and environmental protection for all Austinites.

Our most nuanced and difficult challenges—addressing public safety from root cause issues such as response times and police oversight, for example—can be addressed with community expertise. This includes the input of frontline personnel and directly affected community members. On almost every critical issue in Austin, you can find task forces, recommendations, and plans that have gone unimplemented. The information and leadership is here. Austin needs a Mayor who will collaborate with and empower our communities to take action on our most pressing issues. I am prepared to do this work with you.

Together, we can bring community-driven leadership to Austin.

Austin deserves robust and equitable transportation solutions that align with what voters were promised in 2020. Unfortunately, the current Project Connect plan looks nothing like what voter supported, resembling a plan rejected in 2014, spending the lion's share of our investment on only nine miles of light rail limited to the central city and key elements that support commuters and essential workers, removed.

Carmen supports the original vision of Project Connect: a citywide transit system providing rapid transit across the city and reducing traffic. The current plans threaten affordable housing and local businesses without ensuring protections for deep affordability or cultural preservation. This is not what Austinites voted for.

To move forward, Carmen calls for immediate action:

• Pilot an on-demand transit system that gives Austinites a public option and alternative to expensive ride share services 

• Restore Green Line service and increase bus routes and frequencies beyond downtown, especially for north and southbound commuters.

• Expand MetroAccess services for riders with disabilities and improve training and service.

• Acquire property now for bus rapid transit that will support future light rail expansion at a more reasonable deal made transparently with the voters.

“We can’t afford to let Project Connect stall in legal battles. Instead, we must focus on incremental improvements that make progress toward the vision Austin needs—solutions that are accountable, transparent, and truly serve all communities.”

Carmen envisions a transit system that works for all Austinites, with on-demand transportation options to supplement public transit, and Bus Rapid Transit to build ridership and pave the way for future light rail. Her leadership will ensure sustainable, community-focused transit that benefits workers, commuters, and residents across the city.

“Together, we can make Project Connect what it was meant to be—an accessible, efficient, and equitable transit system for everyone in Austin.”