{"id":130686,"date":"2026-01-20T18:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/130686\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T18:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:36:10","slug":"river-legacy-foundation-board-president-challenges-jim-ross-for-arlington-mayor-seat-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/130686\/","title":{"rendered":"River Legacy Foundation board president challenges Jim Ross for Arlington mayor seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well-known Arlington civic leader Steve Cavender, the River Legacy Foundation board president, will challenge incumbent Mayor Jim Ross<\/a>, Cavender\u2019s campaign confirmed Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Cavender<\/a>, a veteran of the Marine Corps and Army Reserves, is a longtime resident of Arlington and was key in Mayor Jeff Williams\u2019 push to bring the National Medal of Honor Museum to the Entertainment District.<\/p>\n

After being contacted by the Arlington Report, Cavender said in a news release he was urged to run \u201cfor the past couple years\u201d by civic and community leaders and small business owners who are frustrated with budget shortfalls and rising property taxes.<\/p>\n

He said that the shortfalls<\/a> and property tax rates<\/a> had risen under Ross\u2019 tenure as the mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked hard to grow a business in Arlington, so I understand what it takes to bring back high-paying jobs and economic growth. And as a homeowner, I know the financial pressure people feel when taxes and fees rise again and again,\u201d Cavender said. \u201cIt\u2019s time to return energy, focus, fiscal responsibility and stronger leadership to the mayor\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two of Cavender\u2019s early endorsements are former mayors: Williams and Richard Greene.<\/p>\n

Williams said that Cavender\u2019s record of business success and community leadership makes him the right candidate for the mayor’s seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some time, many Arlington citizens and business owners have been asking for an honest, ethical mayor \u2014 someone with real business experience \u2014 who puts citizens first. Steve Cavender checks every box,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Cavender is slated to face<\/a> Ross and Hunter Crow in the May 2 election.<\/p>\n

Ross, also a former Marine, is a lawyer who was first elected in 2021, succeeding Williams who was term-limited. Running for a final third term, he has been under fire recently for a video of the mayor confronting a street preacher in 2018 in New Orleans, his advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community and for unpaid taxes<\/a> to the IRS.<\/p>\n

In an interview Tuesday with the Arlington Report, Ross said he had expected another candidate to come forward.<\/p>\n

In response to Cavender\u2019s claims about the budget shortfall and rising property tax rates, Ross said many of the issues<\/a> were caused by the Tarrant County Appraisal District\u2019s move to freeze property appraisals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He pointed to Arlington\u2019s rank in WalletHub\u2019s best-run cities 2025 list<\/a> as a sign that he and the city demonstrated \u201ctremendous fiscal responsibility.\u201d In the 2025 rankings, Arlington was the top North Texas city and second to Lubbock in the state.<\/p>\n

On the recent controversies, Ross said he had seen personal attacks and expects more to continue during the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ll tell you is we\u2019ve done a great job, and I\u2019ll stand on my record,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/p>\n

Chris Moss is a reporter for the Arlington Report. Contact him at chris.moss@arlingtonreport.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> first appeared on Arlington Report<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well-known Arlington civic leader Steve Cavender, the River Legacy Foundation board president, will challenge incumbent Mayor Jim Ross,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-130686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-arlington-headlines","10":"tag-arlington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}