A North Texas city roiled by racial and religious divisions pushed back against rising anti-Islamic rhetoric by electing a mayoral candidate who campaigned on a unity platform.
Mark Hill, a conservative lawyer who served on the local school board, won the nonpartisan mayoral runoff Saturday in Frisco, a fast-growing suburb of 250,000 north of Dallas, according to the city’s unofficial results.
“This is a beautiful city, not because of any one of us, but because of all of us,” Hill said Sunday in a Facebook video.
Hill, who won 58 percent of the vote, said opponent Rod Vilhauer called him late Saturday and was “very gracious.”
During the campaign, Vilhauer, a retired construction company owner, called immigrants “rats” and Islam a “terrorist group.” Frisco, like a number of other cities in North Texas, has undergone dramatic business and population growth in the past decade, much of it spurred by immigrants from South Asia who come to the U.S. on H-1B visas for specialized workers.
The influx has led to bitter and divisive city council meetings where conservative influencers from outside the community and local residents have complained of an “Indian takeover,” accused legal immigrants of stealing American jobs and tried to block construction of a new Hindu temple and a mosque.
Republican candidates who used similar anti-immigrant rhetoric won recent statewide runoffs. Measures that targeted sharia, a broad set of religious and ethical precepts derived from the Quran that guide daily living for Muslims, were incorporated into the Texas GOP platform at the state convention last week.
Remarks at some council meetings became so abusive, the outgoing mayor, who endorsed Hill, suspended public comment this month to foster a “return to civility.”
At the same time as the city was focusing on the upcoming mayoral election, a local murder trial in which a Black high school student stabbed a White teenager at a track meet captivated national attention, and drew many of the same outside influencers who cast the killing in racially divisive terms and called for the defendant to be “lynched.”
Hill has promised to “turn down the temperature” at city council meetings and keep the focus on city business instead of culture wars. He had warned that Vilhauer could drive residents and businesses out of Frisco, among the fastest-growing cities in the country that’s become home to several corporate headquarters and sports teams, including the Dallas Cowboys.
On Monday, Vilhauer joined the call for unity while also remaining aligned with the state GOP’s new platform.
“Now that Mark has been elected Mayor, I would ask our entire city to join me in support of him,” Vilhauer said in a statement to The Washington Post, noting he plans to “work to bring our city together.” He also said he “will continue to stand firm with everyone in Frisco who believes the threat of Sharia and those who govern themselves by Sharia is real and present in our city, our state, and the USA.”
Some North Texas residents cheered the election results on social media, saying, “Hate didn’t win!” Others noted that Vilhauer still garnered 42 percent of the vote.
“Rod getting over 40 percent of the vote is still pretty concerning,” said Ken Stice of nearby Plano, adding he was “glad the right person won.”
Some Frisco residents urged compassion for Vilhauer supporters.
“Although this is an exciting day, please remember to be respectful to those who may have voted different,” Matt Towson, a local lawyer, wrote on Facebook in congratulating Hill. “We voted for love, inclusion and unity. Let’s make sure our actions back up our words.”
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