Rich Heyman over Zo Qadri

Rich Heyman

For Austin City Council, District 9

Endorsed

vs

Zo Qadri

Incumbent

Zo's failed record

On the Dog's Head deal, Zo Qadri was for it before he was against it. He voted to advance the Amazon giveaway, then flipped to a no on the financing only after months of public outcry and a City Hall packed with angry residents. We were glad to get the no. But District 9 has to ask: which Zo shows up when the cameras are off and the checks are being written? His votes, and his money, answer the question. Rich Heyman is the opposite by design: informed, unafraid, and unbought.

In his own words

Real and transparent community and neighborhood participation in local government decision making, not token gestures.

Rich Heyman, from his platform. Source: richforaustin.org

The criteria, line by line

Our standard. His record. Rich's answer.

Our criteria

Oppose the Dog's Head giveaway, and mean it

"I will oppose the current Dog's Head Development Agreement TIRZ, and I will not support similar agreements unfairly weighted toward business interests."

Zo's failed record

For it before he was against it. On May 21, Qadri voted yes on the unanimous 45-year Dog's Head development agreement, which hands the developer broad latitude over 2,600 acres, data centers included. He flipped to a no on the July 23 financing only after residents packed City Hall and the pressure became unbearable. The 45-year agreement he approved is still binding. A conviction you only find when you get caught is not a conviction.

Sources: Community Impact, KUT

Rich's answer

No flip required. Rich has spent thirty years standing up for Austin's neighborhoods against exactly this kind of deal, whether or not it is popular, and he is not the one who needed a packed chamber to find his answer.

Source: richforaustin.org

Our criteria

No developer money. Period.

"I will not take campaign funds, during or after my race, from developers active in Austin, corporations, or billionaires, and I will not be influenced by corporate or real-estate-funded PACs."

Zo's failed record

His own filings tell the story: $444,240 raised since 2021, and real estate is his largest identifiable industry at $94,644, more than double any other. Half his money, $228,050, arrived in max-out checks. His two biggest private giving blocs are Austin's principal land-use law firm ($9,100 from 24 employees) and Endeavor Real Estate Group ($8,433 from 24 employees), the developer behind the Dog's Head deal he voted to advance.

Only 13.5 percent of his money comes from inside the district he represents.

Source: analysis of all 16 campaign finance reports Qadri filed with the Austin City Clerk, 2021 to 2026, reconciled to the cent. Full breakdown below.

Rich's answer

"Informed. Unafraid. Unbought." That is Rich's banner, and his campaign is built to match it: independent of the developer and corporate money machine, answering to District 9 rather than the checks in the mailbox.

Source: richforaustin.org

Our criteria

The convention center belongs to Austin, not to conventions

"I will take action to repurpose the $5.6 billion convention center project into a downtown cultural district that supports Austin arts, music, and culture."

Zo's failed record

Voted for the convention center expansion, a project 76 percent of Austin voters oppose in a Public Policy Polling survey of 586 voters. It sits in his own district. When 21,000 Austinites signed the petition to put it to a vote, City Hall threw the petition out, and is fighting its own residents in court.

Sources: Austin Monitor, Spectrum News, Statesman; Public Policy Polling, Oct. 2025

Rich's answer

Rich backs economic development that puts "community wealth building, local autonomy and resilience" first, and loosens Austin's "reliance on the whims of Wall Street." Billions for a convention hall nobody asked for fails that test.

Source: richforaustin.org

Our criteria

Transit that delivers what voters bought

"I will evaluate the tax impact of Project Connect, I am willing to reduce its funding if necessary, and I will work to ensure Austin has a transit system that benefits the whole city, not just some areas."

Zo's failed record

Voters approved a permanent tax increase in 2020 for a citywide system. The light rail bill has since grown from $5.8 billion to $8.2 billion while the track shrank to 9.8 miles, with no airport connection, no downtown tunnel, and no trains before 2033. That is almost $840 million per mile. Qadri has defended staying the course, and bus riders in the district have seen routes cut while they wait.

Sources: Texas Tribune, The Austin Bulldog

Rich's answer

Rich backs "density that supports public transit" and demands real accountability to residents, "not token gestures." A permanent tax for a shrinking map fails both tests. That is the standard we endorsed him on.

Source: richforaustin.org/issues

Our criteria

Neighborhoods, not a developer rubber stamp

"Neighborhood residents and their associations should have a strong role in decisions that affect them. Developers should not have the right to decide how a neighborhood grows without community input."

Zo's failed record

Of 238 developer rezoning cases that came before the council from January 2023 through May 2024, a council majority rejected exactly one. Qadri personally dissented twice. He also voted yes on HOME Phase 1, the citywide rezoning that passed 9 to 2 after thirteen hours of resident testimony.

Sources: Austin Free Press, Community Impact

Rich's answer

"Prioritize true affordable housing, stabilize vulnerable neighborhoods, and create responsible development policies." Rich served on the city's Land Development Code Advisory Group. He knows the difference between building a city and selling one.

Source: richforaustin.org

Our criteria

Do the public's business in public, and respect the taxpayer

"I will not vote in a closed meeting (executive session)."

Zo's failed record

He sits on the council that approved a roughly $1 billion gas plant behind closed doors and then refused to release the votes. Ask him how he voted; the record cannot tell you. He voted with the 10-to-1 majority to trigger the 20 percent Prop Q tax increase that voters crushed, 63 to 37. And in the middle of a budget crisis, he authored the $104 million I-35 cap-and-stitch outlay, the first bill of a billion-dollar wish.

Sources: Austin Free Press, KUT, CBS Austin

Rich's answer

"Real and transparent community and neighborhood participation in local government decision making, not token gestures." No secret votes, and no billion-dollar promises the budget cannot keep.

Source: richforaustin.org

The data center flip-flop

For data centers before he was against them.

Zo Qadri helped open Austin's door to data centers, then ran from the vote when the room turned. Hover over the card to see whose playbook that is.

The record

Zo Qadri on data centers

May 7Co-sponsors the economic development framework targeting "data management." Residents beg for a data center exclusion. It passes without one.
May 21Votes yes on the unanimous 45-year Dog's Head agreement. Data centers permitted on the Colorado River, broad latitude for the developer.
July 23Flips to a no on the financing after City Hall fills with angry residents. The 45-year agreement he already approved still permits data centers.

A conviction you only find when you get caught is not a conviction.

Hover: the Abbott parallel

Greg Abbott on data centers

Nov 2025Declares Texas the "epicenter of AI development," celebrating new data center projects beside Google's CEO.
June 2026Suddenly "pushing back against these AI data centers that are trying to build in our neighborhoods."
Aug 2026Freezes new data center grid connections statewide amid public backlash, pending audits.

Court them. Celebrate them. Then scramble to look tough once voters notice. Same playbook.

Hover or tap the card to flip it.

Sources: Community Impact, May 7 council agenda, KUT, Community Impact, KUT, Texas Tribune.

Follow the money

Who funds Zo Qadri?

We read all 16 campaign finance reports he filed with the Austin City Clerk, 1,122 pages covering July 2021 through June 2026, and reconciled every period to the cent against his own cover sheets. This is what his filings show.

$444,240

raised · 3,183 contributions · 2,047 donors

Real estate is his number one industry, and it is not close. $94,644, about 21 percent of everything he has raised, more than double the next industry.
The bigger the check, the more likely it is developer money. Real estate is 1.8 percent of his smallest contributions, and 31.7 percent of his $450-and-up checks. An eighteen-fold gradient.
Half his money arrives at the legal maximum. 512 max-out contributions totaling $228,050, 51 percent of everything raised. His median donor gives $50. His campaign does not run on median donors.
His two biggest private giving blocs are both development businesses. Armbrust & Brown, Austin's principal land-use and zoning law firm: $9,100 from 24 employees. Endeavor Real Estate Group, the Dog's Head developer: $8,433 from 24 employees. Contribution limits bind people, not firms, and both firms gave as blocs.
Senior real estate executives filed as "Not Employed," including Endeavor's own co-founder and CEO. The blank employer field is not always an oversight.
Only 13.5 percent of his money comes from inside District 9. Roughly a third comes from outside Austin entirely.
A continuously registered land-use lobbyist wrote him a $450 check, eighteen times the $25 lobbyist cap in Austin City Code Section 2-2-53. The cap binds the contributor rather than the recipient, and it appears never to have been enforced against anyone. That is the point.

Source: Zo Qadri's campaign finance reports on file with the Office of the Austin City Clerk, July 2021 through June 2026. An employer is not a motive: these figures show where his donors' paychecks come from, not that any contribution decided any vote.

This is why we trust Rich.

Six criteria. Six places the record runs the wrong way. District 9 deserves a council member who does the right thing the first time, without a packed chamber forcing his hand, and whose donor file does not read like a developer directory. That is Rich Heyman.

Back to endorsements Rich's campaign

Every factual claim above is linked to its source or attributed to Qadri's own filings with the Austin City Clerk. Characterizations reflect Austin United PAC's assessment of the public record. Poll figures: Public Policy Polling survey of 586 Austin voters, October 2025.