Luis Canosa, a 24-year-old businessman and candidate for Irving City Council Place 4, made history this month by delivering the largest electoral victory for a council race in that district in recent memory.
Final results reveal Canosa beat out his opponent, Susan Motley, by roughly 12 points. Canosa won 56% of the vote to Motley’s 44%. The young professional violinist and piano repairman received more votes (1,400) than were cast in the joint runoff for a previous city council race in 2010 and any city council run in his District 4 for about the last decade, according to figures provided by Ballotpedia.
The race intensified as the mid-June runoff approached. The potential building of a homeless shelter became a major point of contention between the campaigns. The Dallas Express previously reported that Canosa strongly opposed the use of federal grant money to build a homeless shelter in Irving, while Motley appeared to favor it.
The Canosa campaign warned of increases in crime and other nefarious activity if a homeless shelter was built. Contemporaneously, an investigation by DX exposed rampant crime and lawlessness being committed by vagrants, some of whom stabbed random citizens with screwdrivers, in Irving’s Centennial Park. The then-candidate feared that the shelter would only exacerbate the area’s vagrancy problem, as numerous inquiries into the topic had found.
The councilman-elect was recently asked about his victory by DX on the Cowtown Caller podcast. Canosa recalled that he found out about his victory from an email from the city secretary. First, his brother gave him a hug.
“We were super excited,” he said.
Then, he addressed his supporters and thanked them for their work.
“You’ve seen it so many times in history,” he said, “where an army of mercenaries will perish against an army of believers.”
The councilman-elect was referring to Motley’s out-fundraising of him and attacks from her donors, as previously reported by DX, that at times included accusations that Canosa did not live in Irving. DX had investigated these claims and determined them to be false.
Canosa also shared that he believes the opposing campaign sent people to his shop, pretending to be buyers, in an attempt to bolster other accusations that he was not a piano repair shop owner.
He attributes the high voter turnout to his volunteers.
“They were killing it,” he said. It was young people excited.”
He also says issues like homelessness, crime, and low-density housing (planks of his platform) drove turnout.
DX asked Canosa if Motley had called him on election night. He had heard from prior opponents of Motley’s that she did call to concede directly, however, she has yet to do so in this race.
Canosa was also asked what was next for him. He told DX he will swear in early next week and then begin pursuing the issues he campaigned on.
So, what is the fate of the hotly contested homeless shelter?
“That [won’t be] a concern for South Irving residents anymore,” he said.
