Mayor Sylvester Turner and challenger Tony Buzbee are not the only candidates in Houston facing a runoff election Dec. 14. Twelve of 16 city council seats are yet to be determined.

Of the largest cities in Texas, Houston is the only one that holds elections in November. All others hold local elections in May, with some runoffs scheduled in June.

According to state law, if no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote a runoff election must be scheduled within 20 to 30 days of Election Day.

On Nov. 5, Houston held a general election for mayor, controller, and all 16 seats on the city council. All of Districts A through F nonpartisan seats are headed to a runoff, excluding E and G, whose incumbents were reelected. All five at large nonpartisan slots are headed to a runoff.

This election saw one of the largest fields of new candidates running for office. Only 8 out of more than 135 candidates were incumbents. Of those heading to runoff, only four are incumbents.

General runoff candidates (all nonpartisan) include:

• District A: Amy Peck and George Zoes
• District B: Cynthia Bailey and Tarsha Jackson
• District C: Abbie Kamin and Shelley Kennedy
• District D: Carolyn Evans-Shabazz and Brad Jordan
• District F: Van Huynh and Tiffany Thomas
• District H: Karla Cisneros (Incumbent) and Isabel Longoria
• District J: Edward Pollard and Sandra Rodriguez

At-large candidates (all nonpartisan) include:

• Position 1: Mike Knox (Incumbent) and Raj Salhotra
• Position 2: David Robinson (Incumbent) and Willie R. Davis
• Position 3: Michael Kubosh (Incumbent) and Janaeya Carmouche
• Position 4: Anthony Dolcefino and Letitia Plummer
• Position 5: Sallie Alcorn and Eric Dick

The nonpartisan nonprofit election site Ballotpedia asked all candidates to respond to its election survey. Among those facing the Dec. 14 runoff, only Tiffany Thomas, Janaeya Carmouche, Anthony Dolcefino, and Eric Dick replied.

This article was first published by The Center Square.