{"id":268314,"date":"2026-04-27T15:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T15:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/268314\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T15:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T15:28:07","slug":"ive-voted-against-abbott-more-than-any-living-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/268314\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I’ve voted against Abbott more than any living human’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The comments come as tensions between City Hall and Austin<\/a> escalate over Houston’s recently passed ordinance limiting police cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)\u2014a policy that triggered a rare rupture in\u00a0Whitmire’s<\/a> traditionally cooperative relationship with state leadership.<\/p>\n

In a recent appearance on a city-backed podcast hosted by Owen Conflenti<\/a>, Whitmire leaned heavily on his long history of opposition to Abbott, arguing that years of political clashes have given him a rare advantage in dealing with the governor directly.<\/p>\n

“And speaking of representing Houston, I’ve probably voted against Greg Abbott more than any living human as a 40-year state senator and certainly a senator [during] his entire career,” Whitmire said.<\/p>\n

He argued that history isn’t just political trivia\u2014it’s leverage.<\/p>\n

“So we have a relationship there,” he said. “He knows that I will tell him when he’s wrong. I disagree with him, but my commitment is to all of us Houstonians.”<\/p>\n

“Being a nonpartisan mayor listening to the entirety of our community, I have to build a consensus that will unite this community, protect all of our residents, and at the same time protect our finances,” Whitmire continued.<\/p>\n

The dispute was triggered after Abbott demanded Houston repeal its new policy limiting Houston Police Department’s ICE cooperation, warning the city could lose more than $110 million in public safety grants if it refused.<\/p>\n

Houston City Council narrowly amended its recently approved policy limiting police interactions with federal immigration agents, after\u00a0Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to withhold funds. That forced Whitmire to negotiate a compromise he acknowledged did not fully reflect his original position.<\/p>\n

The 13\u20134 vote followed two turbulent weeks at City Hall marked by protests, a lawsuit from Attorney General Ken Paxton, and a widening political clash over how far Houston Police Department officers can go when encountering individuals with civil immigration warrants.<\/p>\n

The council’s original policy, approved 12\u20135, had eliminated a prior practice requiring officers to wait 30 minutes for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to arrive when someone was held on a civil immigration\u00a0detainer. It also clarified that administrative warrants alone do not justify arrest or continued detention.<\/p>\n

But under mounting pressure from the governor’s office, Whitmire helped broker amendments that significantly softened that language.<\/p>\n

Houston Mayor John Whitmire has faced scrutiny over the cost of his city-backed podcast<\/a>,\u00a0901 Bagby: Inside the Mayor’s Office, which has reportedly used about $60,000 in taxpayer funds, according to public records cited by Houston Public Media. The podcast, hosted by former KPRC 2 anchor Owen Conflenti, has released three episodes so far, each running roughly 17 to 27 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The comments come as tensions between City Hall and Austin escalate over Houston’s recently passed ordinance limiting police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[94416,1836,88494,1704,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-268314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-alertable-abbott-chr","tag-chronnews","tag-chronpolitics","tag-chronstaff","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268314","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=268314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}