Jacob Vaughn
Audio By Carbonatix
After a controversial campaign, Frisco mayoral candidate Rod Vilhauer lost decisively to Mark Hill over the weekend.
Vilhauer, 65, had campaigned on a reactionary stance to the “sharia-fication” of the Collin County suburb and fanned unsubstantiated fears over mass H1-B visa fraud. Frisco voters decidedly rejected that message over the weekend in a Saturday runoff election, in which Hill garnered 58% of the vote, preliminary Collin County election returns show.
According to data from the county’s elections department, Hill won 19,632 votes, as opposed to 14,146 ballots in support of Vilhauer. The two candidates progressed to a runoff election after failing to win a simple majority in May, although both came out ahead of current or former Frisco City Council members.
Vilhauer gained 28.47% of the vote in May with 3,702 ballots cast in his name, which fell behind Hill’s nearly 37% of the total vote. Interestingly, the runoff turnout surpassed that of the first election, with over 30,000 voters casting ballots, far exceeding the May turnout of roughly 13,000.
In a victory speech Saturday night, Hill said “important parts of the Frisco community” had contributed to his election as mayor. He also thanked the city’s Muslim and South Asian electorates at the Frisco Bar and Grill, according to reporting by The Dallas Morning News.
“The secret to winning an election in Frisco is to go meet everyone,” Hill, who ran on a campaign slogan of “Unite Frisco,” said.
‘Assimilate or get out’
In the run-up to the race, Vilhauer painted himself as a populist outsider running against an establishment candidate campaigning with the endorsement of current Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney. The former construction company owner also pointed part of his campaign’s focus on discussions over growing Muslim populations in Collin County and widely-debunked reports of mass H1-B visa fraud amidst hysteria over a supposed “Indian takeover” in Frisco.
On a well-reported podcast in April, Vilhauer said Islam is not a religion, but a “terrorist ideology.” He also likened South Asians to “rats” during a discussion on immigration, which is playing a key part in the story of Frisco’s rapid growth and changing demographic landscape.
“Assimilate or get out,” Vilhauer said on the podcast. “I mean, there’s no patience, no anything. You know, their cars have that ‘Please be patient, student driver sticker.’ I told them all I’ve got this sticker; it says ‘hammer down.’ I’m going to give it to you.”
Vilhauer also admitted he didn’t know the difference between Muslims and Indians until “about a year ago,” adding that “I thought they were all muslims.”
His comments come at a time when the Collin County suburb has garnered national attention for tense town hall meetings packed with public commentators spreading fears over an “Indian takeover,” and the supposed spread of sharia law — which is largely unenforceable in the U.S. Republican lawmakers and candidates like Vilhauer have largely leaned into the rhetoric, with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton especially targeting a Collin County residential development planned by the East Plano Islamic Center.
With Vilhauer’s message rejected, Muslim and South Asian community leaders celebrated Hill’s victory. The growing communities mobilized as election day neared, and Vilhauer’s comments came into sharper focus with the race drawing national attention.
“Nothing for Mark, everything against Rod,” Shamsuddin Ali, a Frisco jewelry store owner who moved to the city from North Carolina six years ago, told The New York Times as he cast his vote. “He had a lot of hate speech, you know, everything against immigrants. I’ve never heard anything like that until this election came.”
