Doug Greco for Mayor of Austin

Why I’m Running for Mayor

I’m running for Mayor because City Hall needs to work for all Austinites. Not big money, not big donors, and certainly not the governor. 

Working people are getting pushed out of Austin and out of the middle class. One quarter of Austin homes are worth at least $1Million, and one-quarter of residents earn at or below 200% of the poverty level.  

We need a laser focus on affordability. From supporting workforce development, our public school districts, living wage jobs, and unions…to investing in affordable housing, rental & mortgage assistance, childcare, and ending homelessness.

We need a Mayor who is not afraid to stand up to the governor and state leaders to protect against attacks on our local decisions and our civil rights. I will work WITH state leaders, but I won’t work FOR them.

I grew up in the Coal Region of Pennsylvania and moved to Austin in 1997 where I taught high school for 5 years at Johnston High School (now Eastside Early College High School).

For 12 years I was the Executive Director/Lead Organizer with Central Texas Interfaith, a coalition of religious congregations and labor unions, where we won over ½ billion in investments at the local and state level for workforce development, affordable housing, and living wage jobs. I led efforts with CTI’s Texas IAF Network to kill the state’s largest corporate welfare program, Chapter 313, which took over $1Billion a year in potential school funding and instead gave it to multinational oil and gas companies.

And I worked in the LGBTQ movement as Director of Programs with Equality California, and at the Texas Legislature as Chief of Staff to State Rep. Gina Hinojosa. 

Gone are the days when we judge mayors and legislators by how well they narrowly tend to their own districts, their own interests, and their own futures.  Anything we achieve at City Hall stands to be undone unless we build the power to stand for working people and those in our community who are being targeted at the state level or beyond. That’s the type of Mayor I will be.