District 1 council race: six candidates vie for Natasha Harper-Madison's open East Austin seat

For the first time since 2019, District 1 will elect a new council member. Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison is term-limited, and six candidates are on the Nov. 3 ballot to replace her.

The district covers neighborhoods east of I-35 between Seventh and Dean Keeton streets and reaches north and east past Lake Walter E. Long to the city limits, KUT reported. It is home to the George Washington Carver Museum and Huston-Tillotson University. More Black Austinites live there than in any other council district. The district was drawn as an African American opportunity district, though it is not majority Black. KUT listed displacement, cost of living, public safety, transportation and the environment as the main issues.

The candidates

Based on reporting by KUT and the Austin Chronicle:

• Alexandria Anderson is a former professional sprinter who owns a personal training business. She has chaired the city's Commission for Women and led the Martin Luther King Neighborhood Association. She wants to review neighborhood plans and focus on sidewalks, drainage and sewers.
• Steven Brown is a fourth-generation East Austinite and healthcare worker running for office for the first time. He co-chaired the campaign against last year's Proposition Q, the Chronicle reported. He wants voters to get another say on Project Connect.
• Amber Goodwin was a Travis County assistant district attorney and chaired the city's Task Force on Gun Violence. She supports homestead exemptions and community land trusts and wants a community health hub.
• Michael Nahas is an economist who chaired the city's Economic Prosperity Commission. He points to the city's pension debt and argues for more housing supply. He told KUT he would now reject Project Connect over its cost.
• Misael Ramos ran against Harper-Madison in 2022 and has led the Blackland Community Development Corporation board. He says the council's housing approach has been "market driven" and wants more deeply affordable housing.
• Portia Riggins grew up in East Austin public housing and has worked at the Travis Central Appraisal District and Austin 311. She wants the city to coordinate social services and to measure how well its spending works.

On money, the Chronicle reported that Goodwin led in the Oct. 5 campaign finance filings, with Ramos second and Anderson third. Nahas is paying for his own campaign. Our campaign finance pages cover sitting council members only, so they do not include the candidates.

What our records show about the seat

Attendance and votes. Our District 1 page counts 2,374 roll calls for Harper-Madison. She was absent for 330 of them, an attendance rate of 86.1%. That is the second-lowest on the council, after Council Member Vanessa Fuentes at 81.9%. She was absent for the whole Oct. 22 meeting. On divided votes she sided with the majority 91% of the time.

Her no votes. She voted no six times. They included a 2025 extension of the automated license plate reader pilot, which passed 8-3, and rezonings at 2406 Rosewood Ave. and 1169 Hargrave St. in her district, which both passed 7-2 in October 2025. License plate readers are one of the issues KUT says the next council will face.

What she led. Items she sponsored that passed include a 2026 resolution on home businesses, which started code changes to allow accessory commercial units and front-yard businesses. Others were an East 11th and 12th Street urban renewal amendment, a fee waiver for Habitat for Humanity homes at Rosewood Courts, rezoning of John Treviño Jr. Metropolitan Park and a resolution marking Huston-Tillotson's 150th anniversary. In September the council approved her resolution on an advisory board for the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex on consent.

What the next member inherits

Several District 1 items are on the Nov. 5 draft agenda, the last regular meeting before the new member is sworn in:

• buying 2.4 acres of right of way on Johnny Morris Road for a 2020 bond street project, for up to $153,000;
• floodplain variances for two homes at 1213 Fort Branch Blvd.;
• $1 million for a transit lane at Dean Keeton Street and I-35, on the District 1 and District 9 line.

What's next

Early voting runs through Oct. 30, and Election Day is Nov. 3. Harper-Madison's term ends in January. Our early voting update has the latest turnout.