College Station voters will choose a new mayor and fill three City Council seats on Nov. 3, and most of the candidates who answered a questionnaire from The Eagle pointed to the same pressures: fast growth, traffic, housing costs and how the city spends tax money.
Early voting begins Monday, Oct. 19.
Mayor
Two current or former council members are running. Bob Yancy, an Air Force veteran and Texas A&M graduate who has served two terms on the council, told The Eagle that residents face neighborhood pressures, housing affordability, underemployment, limited local health care capacity and congestion, and that many feel City Hall has drifted out of touch.
He said he would work to restore trust and transparency, hold the line on fees and the tax rate and focus on neighborhood integrity and public safety.
Elizabeth Cunha, who held Place 4 from 2020 to 2024, called growth the city's biggest issue, especially its effect on traffic. She said the city should look beyond building more roads, pointing to public transit, bike and pedestrian routes, development that puts homes nearer to jobs and schools, and flexible work hours. She said she wants to be an easy mayor to reach.
Place 1
Incumbent Mark Smith, a former public works director who worked 30 years for the city, cited the Highway 6 widening and the Bush-Wellborn crossing as projects that could ease congestion. He said he favors higher-density housing aimed at attainable homeownership and possibly waiving some development fees for projects that meet city housing goals.
Roy May said he is running because residents are not always heard. He pointed to the proposed Public Works facility, whose estimated cost he said rose from $40 million in August 2025 to $55 million in July 2026, and said his first-year goal would be to find at least $2.7 million in General Fund savings or reallocations before the next budget.
