Ivy Taylor

Early life and education Taylor was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York. She told Texas Monthly, "I was born in Brooklyn, but I grew up in Queens". Taylor left Rust College as of May 6, 2023.

Election history

San Antonio City Council and mayoral appointment Taylor was elected to San Antonio City Council in 2009 to represent District 2 on the east side of the city, and was re-elected to the body in 2011 and 2013. Taylor was appointed as mayor by the San Antonio City Council to serve in the interim following Julian Castro's departure to serve as the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the presidency of Barack Obama. Castro was named in May 2014 to the Obama Cabinet and therefore was obligated to vacate his position as mayor. The charter of the City of San Antonio requires that in the event of a mayoral vacancy, the replacement mayor must be elected by and from the other ten members of the council with a majority of six votes. On July 22, 2014, the members of the San Antonio City Council held a special election to fill the vacant position. After Taylor and fellow councilman Ray Lopez split the vote 5–3 in favor of Taylor, Lopez withdrew from consideration, and Taylor was elected with a 9–0 vote. Once Taylor was elected, Castro immediately resigned as mayor.

2015 San Antonio mayoral race

Taylor had initially said that she would not run for mayor when her interim term expired in 2015; In the San Antonio mayoral election held on May 9, 2015, no candidate received a majority of the vote. A runoff election was held on June 13 between Taylor and her remaining rival, Leticia Van de Putte, a liberal Democratic former member of the Texas Senate and the Texas House of Representatives. Though Van de Putte narrowly led the field in the first round of balloting, Taylor went on to win, 51.7%–48.3%, and hence retain her position as mayor for a full two-year term.

2017 San Antonio mayoral race

On November 13, 2016, Taylor officially announced her intention to run for a second full term as mayor. Elections were held May 6, 2017. She advanced to a runoff on June 10, 2017, where she was defeated by city councilman Ron Nirenberg.

Tenure In 2013, while on the city council, Taylor voted against a nondiscrimination ordinance approved by the council that would expand the city's then-current nondiscrimination policy to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and veteran status. Upon taking office as mayor in 2014, Taylor developed and created the city's Office of Diversity and Inclusion to handle complaints under the city's non-discrimination regulations and to facilitate resolution of these disputes. She also helped to kill a streetcar system for downtown San Antonio, which many fiscal conservatives had opposed.

Awards Taylor received the San Antonio Business Journal's "40 under 40" Rising Star award in 2004.

Between 2009 and 2020, Taylor has been a guest lecturer at the University of Texas at San Antonio College of Public Policy.