AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) – The Big Texan Steak Ranch was at standing-room-only capacity Tuesday morning, with community leaders, first responders donning “Firefighters for Cole” t-shirts and community members all waiting to hear Cole Stanley’s intentions for the May 2023 election.

During the event, Stanley the current Amarillo Place One City Councilmember, announced his intention to run for Mayor. 

This comes after Stanley has served as part of the Amarillo City Council since 2021. According to previous reports by MyHighPlains.com, Stanley was elected to the Place One seat with 51.11% of the vote. 

Through his time on the Amarillo City Council, Stanley has challenged the council on a number of city of Amarillo projects, including the expansion and renovation of the Amarillo Civic Center and the renovation of the Amarillo Hardware building for the new location of City Hall. Stanley also challenged the gun reform letter that Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson signed after the mass shooting in Uvalde and signed a petition aimed at overturning the city’s ordinance surrounding funding the Amarillo Civic Center project. 

According to the city’s website, Stanley, an Amarillo resident, has been in business as a commercial/residential builder since 1999. 

During the event, Stanley said that if he is elected to the position, he said he is going to focus on a number of priorities, including public safety as well as improvements to streets and infrastructure. But the main thing that Stanley stressed during the event was the importance of being a voice for members of the community, which he claimed that the current council, and specifically current Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson, was not doing.

“My number one goal in moving forward is I really want to restore the voice of our taxpayer and the voice of our citizens,” he said. “I came out of nowhere not too long ago and I just said ‘No, Mayor, I don’t think I’ll be your rubber stamp today. I will not sit idly by when you write a letter telling our Governor that we want red flag laws and then we somehow think that our Second Amendment rights (are) optional. I let her know, in the most respectful way that I could, that I was not for doubling your tax rate without telling you or asking you, or even listening to you if it’s what you want.”

As of Feb. 14, the following people have filed for a place on the ballot for the Amarillo Mayor position: 

• Freda Powell
• Tonya C Winston
• Jeffrey McGunegle
• Sam Burnett
• Don Collins 

Stanley told MyHighPlains.com that he believes he stands out from the other five because he is not afraid to ask questions, something that he said he did while he was on the Amarillo City Council.

“I’m not afraid to turn things upside down,” Stanley said. “I’m not afraid to start over and quite frankly, there are some things in our city that have just been kind of cooked up for a long time. Ultimately, we need to remodel a few things. We need to tear a few things down and look at them. Make some changes and I’m not afraid to make those changes.”

According to previous reports, filing for a place on the May 2023 ballot is scheduled to end at 5 p.m. on Feb. 17. The last day for residents to register to vote in this election is April 6.