Derrick Broze Files For 2023 Ballot as Mayoral Candidate

Friends,

This morning I went downtown to City Hall to file the paperwork to be listed on the official 2023 ballot. Accompanied by my partner, Miriam, and our volunteer team, we paid the filing fee and signed the necessary paperwork to be listed.

Thank you to every single one of you who donated, attended events, prayed, and campaigned to spread the word about the Broze for Mayor campaign. Without you we wouldn’t have the money or the confidence to take this movement for a better Houston as far and wide as we possibly can.

Now that we have filed the paperwork, there’s 2 important things we need you to know.

First, we need your financial support as much as possible for these remaining 3 months and 2 weeks until Election Day on November 7th! If you can dig deep and donate $5, 10, 23, or even 100 we will put it to great use!

We plan to rent as many billboards as possible around Houston. We will need $5,000 to 10,000 for 1 or 2 billboards. We also want to run ads on streaming services and radio. In short, we need your help to make sure we can get out the word about the Broze for Mayor vision for Houston.

Second, as you will hear in the video above, there is a chance the City of Houston will reject my ballot application because of a felony in my background from 2005. As many of you may know – because I share my story often – I became addicted to drugs in 2004, at the age of 19, and was arrested at 20 in 2005 for drug possession. I did my time, was released on parole and discharged in June 2009.

This means I was arrested 18 years ago, and discharged from parole 13 years ago.

Nonetheless, the City of Houston is attempting to use a faulty interpretation of the Texas Election Code to deny non-violent former felons like myself an opportunity to run for office in our communities.

I believe there is a chance the City may reject my ballot application sometime in the next 72 hours, under this faulty interpretation.

The fact is that the Texas state law is written in a way which is ambiguous and confusing. It says that a person convicted of a felony can run for office only if they have either been “pardoned or otherwise released from the resulting disabilities.”

I believe I should be able to run for office after doing my time, paying all the fees, and meeting all other conditions.

We will see what happens, but I will tell you that if the city attempts to stop me from getting on the ballot we are prepared to file a lawsuit and fight that battle as we continue our campaign for Mayor of Houston.

Unfortunately, lawsuits would also cost a lot of money. If you can give please do so right now! 

This is a battle for the future of Houston. The other “main” candidates have millions of dollars and are deeply connected to the corporate political parties.

They might have millions, but I know I have YOU! With your support we are building a coalition of supporters from across the political spectrum who are ready for common sense solutions.

Thanks for being in my corner.

– Derrick Broze