The 2026 Austin City Council elections won’t take place for 218 days but 20 candidates have already appointed campaign treasurers to run for one of the five council seats that will be on the November 3rd ballot. One of those said he is withdrawing.
The terms of five incumbents will end in January 2027. Four of them are seeking another four-year term. In the aggregate, those four incumbents are sitting on more than $430,000 in cash on hand, as of the campaign finance reports filed January 15th. Collectively the challengers have nearly $359,000 in cash. However, 10 of them jumped in after the December 31st deadline for reporting campaign finances and have nothing to show.
Austin City Council members are paid $131,241 a year. In addition, they get $450 a month for operating a private vehicle on city business and an annual Wireless Telephone Allowance of $900 per year.
According to information published by the Austin City Clerk, individual campaign contributions to City Council candidates are capped at $500 per election per person, meaning $500 in the general election and $500 if involved in a runoff. (The cap was raised from $450 after our previous story.) Aggregate contributions from donors outside of Austin are capped at $48,000 for the general election and $32,000 for any runoff election…