Across North Tarrant County, communities like Southlake, Colleyville, Keller, and North Richland Hills have worked hard to preserve what makes them special — quiet neighborhoods, safe streets, and local control over how and where they grow. These aren’t sprawling urban centers run by big-city bureaucrats. They are hometowns built by families who value order, beauty, and stability.
One of the greatest threats to these communities in high-density developments — a problem that citizens have successfully resisted at the local level, but one that former Southlake mayor–turned–Texas Senate hopeful John Huffman is championing in Austin.
Earlier this year, Austin legislators considered Senate Bill 15, a measure marketed as “housing freedom.” In truth, the bill would make it easier for developers to cram dense housing developments — duplexes, apartments, and small-lot subdivisions — into suburban communities who don’t want them by limiting the power of these cities to set minimum lot sizes and zoning rules.
The mayors of Colleyville, Keller, and Southlake saw it differently. They recognized SB 15 as a direct attack on their communities.
“This bill, should it become law, would change the character of Texas communities and decimate land-use and zoning authority at the local level,” the mayors wrote in a letter to Austin legislators.
“This bill preempts our citizens’ ability to have a voice in the direction of the communities they call home… the bill will undoubtedly create challenging problems for cities as it pertains to maintaining the infrastructure to support development that would essentially allow 31 dwelling units per acre.”
For families who’ve invested their lives in places like Southlake, the danger was obvious. High-density projects bring crime, traffic congestion, overcrowded schools, and greater pressure on police and fire departments. They diminish neighborhood integrity and chip away at the very character that drew families to these towns in the first place.
But John Huffman, Southlake’s former mayor and now a candidate for the Texas Senate, didn’t see it that way. When SB 15 came before the Senate Committee on Local Government, Huffman testified in favor of the bill. “By allowing for smaller lot sizes,” he told senators, “that’s the biggest impact you can make.”
In other words: when his own community said no, Huffman said yes.
It was a stunning betrayal from a leader who once represented the very neighborhoods he was now undermining. North Texas homeowners expect their leaders to defend local control — not to help Austin politicians and big developers override it. Huffman’s testimony put him squarely on the opposite side of the people he once represented and who he now wants to send him to the Texas Senate.
During his time as mayor, Huffman often spoke about maintaining Southlake’s character and resisting outside interference. Yet when it mattered most, he stood with those pushing a statewide mandate that could transform communities like his own into dense, overbuilt extensions of Dallas and Fort Worth — bringing with them the congestion, crime, and strain on public resources those cities already face.
And Huffman isn’t backing down. His campaign materials now talk vaguely about “cutting red tape” and promoting “missing middle housing” — a signal that he still supports more of the policies that could allow 31 housing units per acre or more, exactly what his constituents have fought to prevent.
The question for conservatives in Senate District 9 is simple: Whose side is John Huffman on? The residents of Southlake, Keller, Colleyville, and North Richland Hills have made it clear they don’t want high-density housing forced on them by the state. They want leaders who will fight to protect their neighborhoods, their schools, and their property values.
When given that same choice, John Huffman didn’t stand with them — he stood with the people willing to mortgage the communities North Texas families worked hard to build.
Huffman is currently running to fill the vacancy for Texas Senate District 9, facing Democrat Taylor Rehmet and Republican Leigh Wambsganss, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare, and Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn.
The special election will be held concurrently with the state’s constitutional-amendments election on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. Early voting begins Monday, Oct. 20, 2025.