Dallas City Hall
The filing period for residents seeking a seat on the Dallas City Council opened Wednesday, and voters will elect at least four new members this spring.
The application filing deadline for appearing on the May 3 election ballot for the 15-member City Council is Feb. 14. All 14 district council seats will be up for election while Mayor Eric Johnson continues his second and final four-year term.
Carolyn King Arnold in District 4,  Tennell Atkins in District 8 and Omar Narvaez in District 6 are term-limited. Jaynie Schultz in District 11 announced last year that she wouldn’t seek reelection at the end of her second term in office. Arnold represents portions of Oak Cliff.
Atkins, the council’s mayor pro tem, is the council’s longest-tenured member. He was elected in 2007 to represent the city’s southernmost district, which includes Red Bird. He continued to win reelection until reaching term limits in 2015 and was voted back onto the council in 2017 and will be term-limited for a second time in 2025.
Arnold is second to Atkins in total time spent on the Dallas City Council. The South Oak Cliff representative was first elected in 2015 and lost her seat two years later when voters chose Dwaine Caraway. Arnold was appointed back to the City Council by voters in 2018 to serve the remainder of then-mayor pro tem Caraway’s term after he pleaded guilty to federal public corruption charges, resigned and was later sentenced to prison.
Realtor Katrina Whatley and Raymond Adame have indicated interest in running against incumbent Chad West for North Oak Cliff’s District 1 seat.
