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Former Dallas ISD superintendent and mayoral candidate Michael Hinojosa highlighted his educational background and told reporters at a press conference Tuesday morning that he supports a strong-mayor system.
Standing outside Dallas City Hall, Hinojosa opened his remarks by declaring, “First of all, I’m back.” The 70-year-old most recently led the state’s second-largest school district from 2015 to 2022. He announced his run for the Dallas mayor’s seat on Monday and is the first candidate to have declared thus far.
Born in Mexico and raised in Oak Cliff, Hinojosa taught and coached in DISD before moving to administrative roles. He pitched himself as a unifier and said that he felt the issues were too important to wait any longer.
“It’s going to be about unity, and that’s why I’m starting now,” Hinojosa told reporters. “I can’t wait. I can’t wait another 14 months to throw my hat in the ring. This is going to be too important.”
Strong mayor?
The city has been racked with division over the question of City Hall’s future, which is itself part of a wider debate about the future of downtown Dallas and the function of city government. Two council members recently delayed a vote on relocating from City Hall by petitioning a local judge for a temporary restraining order. The suit has since been dropped, and the council voted to reject a renovation plan for the I.M. Pei-designed building on June 11.
As debates about the future of City Hall persist, the city has furloughed employees amid a $51 million budget gap, and downtown is facing a corporate exodus. Hinojosa told reporters that the city “is at an inflection point.”
“What Dallas needs now is strong, proven, transparent leadership,” Hinojosa said. “And I’m that guy.”
The idea of a more empowered head of city government has gained momentum recently, as it has several times in Dallas history when the city faces political turmoil. Currently, the city is governed by a council-manager form of government, in which city council members from 14 districts serve as the policymaking body, while the city manager oversees most city departments. The mayor, on the other hand, is largely restricted to running council meetings, committee appointments and ceremonial duties.
In a roughly 3,600-word D Magazine article, former mayor and Observer columnist Laura Miller argued that the city should move toward a stronger mayor, as opposed to a textbook strong mayor like Houston’s John Whitmire. Miller wrote that the mayor should still have the ability to fire the city manager, veto legislation and set council agendas. District 14 council member Cara Mendelsohn has also supported the idea. And so does Hinojosa; he told reporters Monday.
“I support it because we can move faster,” he said. “I’m going to vote for it. I’m not going to campaign for it because that would be self-serving. And if we don’t, and if it’s proposed and it fails, I’m not going to whine about it.”
A change to a strong-mayor or stronger-mayor system would require voter approval to amend the city charter. The next opportunity for charter amendments to make their way onto ballots will come in 2027, the same year Hinojosa will stand for election.
Budget worries and City Hall
Hinojosa said that city officials are “worried about furloughs, as they should be.” He cited his experience leading DISD through an $84 million budget shortfall in 2008 during his first term as evidence that he would bring fiscal responsibility to 1500 Marilla Street.
The city’s budgetary crisis has been driven, in part, by revenue caps on property taxes mandated by state lawmakers. When asked by the Observer how he would advocate for the city with officials in Austin, he again cited his DISD experience.
“You can’t be against everything, and so what I did was meet with the legislators and taught them the concept of incentivizing the behavior that you want,” Hinojosa said. “If you want low crime, give us resources for low crime, and then hold us accountable. And don’t give us any more money if we don’t deliver”
On the subject of City Hall, he said, “that’s gonna be handled before I get there,” although he questioned the building’s efficiency.
Three Pillars
The candidate laid out three pillars for his campaign. The first, he said, would be to build “all communities,” especially underserved neighborhoods. Along with neighborhoods in West Dallas and the southern sector, he also counted downtown as an area in need of investment.
“It includes the central business district. Downtown Dallas Inc. is trying to do something phenomenal here, but they keep running into things, so it’s about affordability,” he said. “People want to live in the city, but they can’t afford it, and so we got to help make that happen. There’s no pride in being the tale of two cities.”
Other campaign pillars included investment in infrastructure and quality-of-life issues. He said public safety is a large part of quality of life, and called supporting public safety the “number one thing we need to do.”
Homelessness and housing were also identified as important issues. In April, Oak Cliff council member Chad West said, “we have a housing crisis,” at a council briefing after members were told that housing demand in the city is exceeding supply. Council members were also told that there were over 36,000 eviction filings in Dallas in 2025.
In the community
While the current mayor has been criticized for a lack of visibility in Dallas communities, Hinojosa told reporters he plans to be active in the community. He said that he plans to visit every council district each Tuesday during his nearly year-and-a-half campaign.
“My office is going to be out in the community, so you can come see me at one of these office hours,” he said.
If elected, he said that he would continue to make himself available to residents each Tuesday.
“Effort is good, results are better, and I hold myself more accountable than anybody does,” Hinojosa said. “And let me tell you this: be proud of your past, be proud of who you are and where you come from, because you are a set of your learned experiences. I’m proud to be an immigrant. I’m proud to be from Oak Cliff.”
