The four-term City Council member shares his priorities and vision for mayor.
SAN ANTONIO — Whether or not it reaches he reaches his desired destination this summer, John Courage’s path as a mayoral candidate has been long and interesting, with a couple U-turns thrown in for good measure.
Courage, who has represented District 9 on San Antonio City Council since 2017, was the first to publicly announce his campaign for mayor in January 2024, back when the presidential election was barely starting to gain steam. Now it’s a year later, the May 3 election to determine Ron Nirenberg’s successor is reaching full speed and, by at least one measure, Courage is leading most of the pack after briefly exiting the race last year, citing health issues.
He rejoined just before January’s filing deadline, a decision the San Antonio community appears to have endorsed when Courage ranked second in a recent UTSA poll asking likely voters who they’re planning to support at this point. In that survey, 8% of respondents supported his bid, with only former U.S. Air Force Undersecretary Gina Ortiz Jones accruing a larger share.
“I decided I wanted to make sure that I could continue to influence the race from the perspective that we need to rely on people who have the experience of being on council in order to lead this city into the future,” Courage said in an interview with KENS 5.
The former educator says he’s ready to lead, buoyed by what his prior career in schooling taught him about the importance of listening and proactively seeking feedback.
“You can’t make a decision if you haven’t listened to all sides.”
Re-entering the race
Courage, who turns 74 in April, says he didn’t need to think too hard about running for mayor back when the term duration was just two years.
That changed in November, when voters approved updating the City Charter so that they mayor and City Council members serve twice as long, with the max amount of terms they’re able to serve halved from four terms to two.
Suddenly, Courage had to reconsider his campaign.
“I had to think to myself, ‘Well, what’s it going to be like if I’m in a four-year term and I’m 76, 77 or nearing 78?'” he said, adding he talked it over with his recently retired wife.
He announced on Dec. 2 that he was dropping out, marking a high-profile exit and. Given he’s reached the limit of how long he can serve on council, it might also marked the potential end of Courage’s political career.
By mid-January, he reversed course again, saying he had gotten a handle on his health and felt confident he could serve four years as mayor.
But just as pivotal a factor, he says, was his concerns over what he perceived as outsider influence on the race, pointing to how donors outside San Antonio’s boundaries were contributing to individual opponents’ war chests.
Asked about the goals he’s work towards in his first 100 days, Courage waves off the deadline — “There are too many things that could come up” — while pointing to specific objectives he’d pursue were he to be elected. Among them: Overseeing the installation of baby boxes at fire stations; creating a “participatory budgeting” process that allows for more residents to have a say in how dollars are spent; and an initiative to help San Antonians reduce their medical debts with the help of a national nonprofit.
But also we’re in a situation where we need to carefully watch what’s going on with our utilities,” he added. “I’m concerned about what may come out of the state legislature. And I think we need to be prepared to act to ensure that we can still sustain safe and affordable water and safe and affordable energy.”
As for broader priorities, Courage said public safety is No. 1 and building affordable housing another key focus. But he also wants to foster a culture of increased public input across the board.
“I think that the city should be more flexible with allowing individuals to have more of a say on how the city budget gets spent, and I’ve done that in District 9,” he said. “I’ve had over $5 million in projects that the people in my district suggested and voted for, and I made sure that got carried out.”