North Texas Daily

City council member Gerard Hudspeth kicked off his re-election campaign for District 1 on Thursday night at Harvest House to a crowd of around 50 people. District 1 covers central and southeastern Denton.

The event ran from 6-8 p.m., people mingling and eating for nearly an hour until people began to speak.

“I want to tell you what I see in Gerard,” said Marc Moffitt, a Denton GOP precinct chair for precinct 1018 and the owner/broker of Crown Realty. “I see a leader, and I think all of us see that leadership capability and that quality in Gerard.”

Campaign pamphlets placed on various tables at the event covered the issues that Hudspeth “will continue to lead the way on,” such as public safety, infrastructure improvements, low taxes and increasing transparency.

At his second campaign kickoff, Hudspeth showed a couple campaign videos before thanking people for coming.

“I think we’ve gotten a lot done [since] 2017,” Hudspeth said. “I look forward to 2019 and this opportunity. I look forward to sharing our record and what we’ve been able to do and accomplish and lead on.”

Homemaker Marta Menn, 72, said she came out to the campaign kickoff party to learn more about Hudspeth.

“I don’t know him very well,” Menn said. “I just wanted to see what his platform is and support him in his campaign.”

Insurance agent Dave Reese, 56, said he attended the campaign kickoff because he heard about Hudspeth from friends and received an invite on Facebook.

“I checked up on him and heard a lot of positive things about him,” Reese said. “What great character he has and what a great guy he is. [I] wanted to come out and see for myself.”

Speaking in an phone interview on Tuesday before the kickoff event, Hudspeth said he decided to run for re-election to continue what he started.

“I think [we’re] doing some great things, making great progress and fulfilled the first batch of promises from 2017,” Hudspeth said. “[We] got a lot done but there’s a lot more to do.”

Hudspeth said he felt fantastic about what he accomplished during his first term.

“A lot of individuals’ concerns satisfied, met, helped, all the above and when you talk about the second term now with that knowledge base, I think we can even be more efficient and get a lot more done,” Hudspeth said.

Gerard Hudspeth, incumbent of Denton City Council District 1, poses for a picture with a family who attended his campaign kickoff party. Image by Isabel Anes.

Hudspeth also said he probably had triple the amount of people ask how they can help with his re-election campaign.

“That to me demonstrates what we’ve been able to do for two years,” he said. “And the bonds we’ve made.”

Hudspeth said the messaging will be different for this second campaign compared to his first.

“Because before, it’s ‘Here’s what I’d hoped to do,’” he said. “And so now the message is communicating what we were able to do.”

George Ferrie is also running for Denton City Council District 1 and city council elections will be held on May 4.

Featured Image: The Denton City Council campaign kickoff for Gerard Hudspeth was held at Harvest House off Hickory Street. The event was open to the general public. Image by: Isabel Anes.