The race to represent one of San Antonio’s most progressive council districts is down to a runoff between incumbent Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1) and an unlikely challenger: conservative neighborhood leader Patty Gibbons.

District 1 starts near King William and stretches north of U.S. 281 in some places — yet its council seat is still largely regarded as the representative for city’s the urban core.

So entrenched is that reputation that two years ago Gibbons fought plans to move part of her Northside Greater Harmony Hills neighborhood into the district in the first place, saying it had little in common with D1 residents.

But when that effort failed, a new North D1 Neighborhood Alliance started organizing to take a bigger voice in the district’s future, surprising political watchers — and even Gibbons herself — when one of their own landed in the runoff to represent it.

In a 10-way race, Gibbons came in second with 18% of the vote — besting a number of other challengers with more progressive backgrounds.

By her own telling, however, Gibbons, 65, now faces a major challenge cobbling together enough supporters to win a runoff.

She won three precincts in the first round, all of which were either partially or entirely north of Loop 410.

“I’ve had people close the door on me because of my politics,” Gibbons said. “But I also have had some where we’ve had some great discussions.”

And despite a long list of challengers, Kaur, 37, remains broadly popular, raising more money than most mayoral hopefuls this year and falling just short of the 50% required to avoid a June 7 runoff.

Nevertheless, on Wednesday, a number of local GOP leaders filled the audience at Texas Public Radio’s Malú & Carlos Alvarez Theater to support Gibbons as one of their four conservative runoff candidates this year — albeit one of the toughest seats their party is trying to flip.

“There were over 51% [of voters] who said this isn’t working for me,” Gibbons framed her case to the audience. “They did not vote for Sukh Kaur, they voted for someone else … and that someone else is now with Patty Gibbons.”

Historic neighborhoods, a changing downtown

Kaur, a yoga instructor who owns her own education consulting company, was among those criticizing District 1’s leadership from the outside last election cycle, primarily over ongoing city construction delays.

She came up through the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership San Antonio Program, launched a seemingly long-shot campaign against neighborhood-backed incumbent Mario Bravo, and won overwhelmingly — a sign that the district’s most vocal residents aren’t necessarily the majority.

Though Kaur believes District 1 residents largely want San Antonio to become a more modern city, her support for major redevelopment projects like Project Marvel, the new Missions’ Minor League Baseball stadium and a bus rapid transit line down San Pedro Avenue have continued to rankle neighborhood groups that are skeptical about what the changes may bring.

At Wednesday’s debate, Kaur acknowledged those concerns but doubled down on changes she said are critical to match the needs of a fast-growing city.

“District 1 needs a council person that can both preserve the character of our beautiful neighborhoods … but also a leader that’s going to be able to push our district forward,” she said.

“[We need a D1] that’s going to be affordable for all of our residents, so that teachers and firefighters can afford to live with access to public transit, and the amazing amenities that we are building while also having an accessible, walkable neighborhood,” she said.

A property rights background

Gibbons’ perspective could not be more opposite.

She told the audience Wednesday that San Antonio’s quiet charm and warm weather were key selling points when she moved here her husband from Ohio in 1982 to raise a family — attributes she’s seen slip away as the city grows.

The couple owned a land surveying company for many years, and Gibbons’ time on the city’s Zoning Commission was marked by heated disagreements over landowner rights.

Gibbons has run for council once before — in 2017, when she was still in the more conservative District 9. She finished fifth in that race with 7.42%.

Councilman John Courage (D9) ultimately appointed a replacement in 2021 after fellow commissioners complained her actions weren’t conducive to a collaborative body, but Gibbons has since only become more convinced of her approach.

“When you come from the the premise of land already, and you’ve looked at land, you’ve walked on their land, you found their property corners, you’ve drawn it up, I knew what that land meant to somebody, and I was trying to defend them,” Gibbons said Wednesday when asked about disagreements with the zoning commissioners.

“Whether they were a developer, whether they were grandma trying to cut her one acre into two lots, or whether it was a community that saw [a proposed change] would be a problem — the community was important.”

Fast-forward several years, and Gibbons credits that experience with fueling her community activism.

As president of the Greater Harmony Hills Neighborhood Association, Gibbons rallied impressive crowds of homeowners to the 2022 redistricting meetings where they fought unsuccessfully against the city’s proposed maps, even bringing in their own demographer to suggest an alternative.

Her efforts were no more successful two years later, when she waged war against a zoning strategy to facilitate denser housing and car-free lifestyles along the San Pedro Avenue bus route last year.

Kaur helped champion the so-called transit-oriented development plan as a way to make the most of the city’s investment in VIA’s Green Line, and as a strategy to provide more affordable housing.

But Gibbons, who launched her council campaign in October, viewed the move as power-grab by the city.

“This was a zoning overlay that never got any approval from people [living within] 200 feet, because it was a ‘corridor,'” she said Wednesday. “There’s never been a corridor … So you’re developing something totally off the map, different from any other city I’ve looked at.”

Gibbons lamented the perfunctory-seeming input sessions regularly on the campaign trail, and held them up as further evidence Kaur wasn’t listening to constituents.

“It came down to one vote, and I’m very offended that when that vote happened at the dais, that the councilwoman was so gleeful,” Gibbons said Wednesday. “It wasn’t what any of us wanted.”

Different approaches to public input

Throughout Wednesday’s debate, Kaur and Gibbons disagreed repeatedly over what fair public input should look like.

While Kaur acknowledged that the city needs to do a better job engaging residents about the projects happening around them, she said it was important that everyone — not just homeowners — are included in the conversation.

“We need to think more innovatively about how we’re actually connecting with our residents,” said Kaur, who called for the city to adopt a “customer relationship management system” where residents can opt in or out of a two-way communication system with city leaders.

Gibbons contended that technology is no replacement for a council member attending community gatherings in person — something she said has been lacking under Kaur, who made only brief appearances at Northside neighborhood meetings over the past two years.

“Does that sound like too much work? Does that sound like maybe it’s less innovative? I think that’s the reality,” Gibbons said. “If you are not there, then their voice is never heard.”

Gibbons also blamed what she characterized as Kaur’s lack of communication with residents for the unusually high number of opponents in the race, and said the incumbent didn’t seem interested in changing her ways.

“I’ve already suspected it is why nine people ran against her, because you’re not listening,” Gibbons said. “I’m talking and you’re watching it, but you’re not really taking it here,” she said, gesturing to her head. “If you don’t take it here, then how do you make any changes for anybody in this town?”

Kaur contended that her office has made big changes to address residents’ issues, including hiring an infrastructure director, but the number of requests they receive is dramatically higher than in other districts.

As a byproduct of the heated reelection race, however, Kaur was subject to an ethics complaint from a different opponent this year who provided public records suggesting her council staff was improperly using city resources to interact with her campaign contact list.

Part of the complaint will be taken up by the city’s Ethics Review Board, but Kaur said Wednesday she’d done nothing wrong.

“The city rule is you’re allowed to import information, so if I go out and get a bunch of information on the campaign trail, we’re actually allowed to reach out to those residents and say, ‘Hey, we heard you have an issue,'” Kaur said.

Partisan ties

Though City Council sears are nonpartisan offices, San Antonio’s runoff election, including a high-profile mayoral race between Gina Ortiz Jones and Rolando Pablos, is quickly dividing the city along party lines.

In a nod to that dynamic, Kaur, who kept some distance from the progressive movement in her 2023 race, sought and received the backing of the Bexar County Democratic Party for her reelection race.

She faces a very different race now than two years ago, in which her opponent had an environmental activist background, and neither candidate wanted to be associated with the so-called Justice Charter, which was rejected by about 68% of D1 voters.

Despite Gibbons’ conservative background, it’s clear her crusade against urbanization has tapped into some bipartisan frustration. The third-place finisher in the race, Susan Strawn, was also a neighborhood leader running to preserve historic neighborhoods, though from a Democratic background.

However, Gibbons’ activist approach has also ruffled feathers with some should-be allies.

In a city with relatively few GOP office holders, Gibbons campaigned against Bexar County Commissioner Grant Moody (Pct. 3) in his 2024 primary and sparred with Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) when he served with her on zoning. For her council race, Gibbons hired an Austin-based consulting firm best known locally for helping primary challengers in races against Moody and former state Rep. Steve Allison.

Asked about that dynamic at Wednesday’s debate, Gibbons said it’s San Antonio’s largely progressive council — not conservatives — leaving the political middle without representation.

“There’s a big percentage [of people] in the city that never gets heard,” Gibbons said, arguing that the demographic makeup of the district has been moving in her favor as more neighborhoods were added.

“If you don’t have a balance on City Council, we’re missing a very large sector of people — a lot of Anglos,” she said. “I think a majority of Anglos voted in District 1 this time around, they’re out there, because the district is now stretched very large.”

Early voting starts Tuesday and runs through June 3, ahead of election day on June 7.

Watch the full D1 runoff debate:

Video credit: Kristin Quintanilla / Texas Public Radio