Courtesy of Campaign / Zeke Barbaro

In August, Democrats were riding high about President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race to make room for Vice President Kamala Harris to take on former president Donald Trump.

Krista Laine, incoming City Council member for Austin’s Northwestern District 6 was one of them.

At the time, she told the Chronicle that the surge in Democratic enthusiasm was felt all the way down in her Council race. As she ran in the only Council district in Austin that is not a Democratic stronghold, one of her campaign advisers wrote a memo listing four reasons why Laine would win the race – one of which being that Harris, not Biden, was the Democratic Party’s nominee for president.

That analysis proved to be correct. Laine won a narrow victory over conservative D6 incumbent Mackenzie Kelly, taking in just over 51% of the vote across Travis and Williamson counties. Laine’s campaign banked on the notion that D6 was a Democratic district (even though city races are technically nonpartisan), and they were correct. Harris took in about 67% of the vote in precincts that fell within the Travis County portion of D6 (in Travis, overall, Harris earned 68% of the vote).

But Trump won on Nov. 5, and it is now clear that he did so in a commanding fashion – even winning the popular vote, unlike in 2016. And, more broadly, the GOP dominated. Federally, they control the Senate and House of Representatives; in Texas, where several State House candidates endorsed by A.G. Ken Paxton won their elections, state government will likely be even more right-wing. Laine will now have to contend with these changes: She’ll represent a Council district that voted for her and Harris but in a state and nation that supported Republicans.

She says that she did expect to win by a wider margin, but that the national results won’t change how she governs beginning in 2025. “I was already running in a district and environment where I had to always think about the GOP, conservative perspective,” Laine said, “as well as the liberal and Democratic perspective. That hasn’t changed much for me.”

Laine acknowledged, however, that the totality of the Nov. 5 results may change the types of priorities she can pursue. She has been a proponent of a city climate bond, which Council could place on the ballot next year or in 2026. She still supports one, but now, she says, its focus may need to be more about packaging the bond as infrastructure investment rather than action on climate. The idea, she said, is that “infrastructure investment” may be more palatable to conservatives.

She mentioned a similar kind of strategic shift may be warranted in how she – and Democrats more broadly – defend the rights of transgender Austinites. Trans people were the target of political ads across the country – including by the Trump campaign and in the Texas Senate race by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Laine says attacks on trans children have been an issue in D6, as well (in 2022, far right school board candidates in Round Rock ISD sought to use them as a wedge issue).

“I am not someone who will bend on civil rights,” Laine said. “I will make sure trans people in Austin are defended.” But, she said, how trans people are defended might need to change. “I don’t have the answers to what that looks like yet,” Laine said. “I do see a lot of scapegoating and targeting of trans people post-election, though, and that must stop. They need to feel safe.”

Overall, Laine said she feels confident to lead the district despite division at the state and national levels of politics. “I’ve just always worked in a nonpartisan, big tent kind of way,” she said. “I don’t think the election results change that.”