We took our 2026 candidate criteria and went down the list, vote by vote. Here is Ryan Alter's record against that standard, and where David Weinberg stands instead.
David Weinberg
For Austin City Council, District 5
Endorsed
vs
Ryan Alter
Incumbent
Ryan's failed record
When the richest corporation on earth came looking for a billion-dollar handout on the Colorado River, District 5 needed a council member who would stand with residents. Ryan Alter voted yes. When the council raised your tax rate, he voted yes. When it approved a billion-dollar gas plant behind closed doors, he was in the room, and the city still refuses to say how he voted. On our criteria, the record speaks. David Weinberg's answer to all of it is simple: the community decides first.
In his own words
I'm running to listen, deeply engage with the communities in District 5, and bring their voices to City Hall.
David Weinberg, announcing his campaign. Source: davidforatx.com
The criteria, line by line
Our standard. His record. David's answer.
Our criteria
No welfare for billionaires and giant corporations
"I will oppose Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones (TIRZ), Chapter 380 economic incentives, and other unnecessary tax breaks for developers and large corporations. I will oppose the current Dog's Head Development Agreement TIRZ."
Ryan's failed record
Voted yes on the Dog's Head TIRZ, roughly $1.5 billion in tax financing for a 2,600-acre development anchored by Amazon, over hundreds of residents who packed City Hall to oppose it. It passed 7 to 3. He was not one of the three.
His own words that day: "I think this process has not lived up to what it needs to from our side. We should have required more." He said it, then voted yes anyway.
"Receiving the community's approval before voting to green light multi-million-dollar city projects." That is his platform, in his own words. No billion-dollar handouts without the community's yes.
Protect the Colorado River. No handouts for data centers.
"I will oppose all moves to provide water, energy, sewer service, and tax subsidies for data centers or other large commercial projects. I will oppose major development projects that increase urban heat island effects or urban flooding."
Ryan's failed record
The deal he approved allows up to 100 percent impervious cover on 2,348 acres, cuts the river's Critical Water Quality Zone to 200 feet, and lists data centers as a permitted use for 45 years.
He admitted it himself: "I will be the first to admit that we should not have put in 100% impervious cover in the first deal." He voted for the first deal, and then for the financing.
David spent six years leading the Texas League of Conservation Voters. Protecting the river is not a talking point for him, it is his career, and his platform commits to "working with residents on their vision for a more vibrant and inclusive future for our parks and green spaces."
"I will not vote in a closed meeting (executive session)."
Ryan's failed record
In May 2026 the council authorized a roughly $1 billion gas peaker plant purchase behind closed doors, in executive session. When the press asked for the votes, the city refused to release them. Ask Ryan Alter how he voted on a billion dollars of your money. The public record cannot tell you, and he has not either.
An open-government expert put it plainly: "It's fundamental to know who is voting on what. This is not my idea of democracy."
David's campaign is built on the opposite instinct: "I'm running to listen," and to bring District 5's voices to City Hall, not to hide City Hall's votes from District 5. A billion dollars of the public's money, decided where the public cannot see it, is everything he is running against.
"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."
Ryan's failed record
When $1.2 billion in convention center construction contracts came to the council in October 2023, not one member voted no, Alter included. In a Public Policy Polling survey of 586 Austin voters in October 2025, 76 percent opposed the project. Nine percent supported it. The council built it anyway.
Sources: Austin Monitor; Public Policy Polling, Oct. 2025
David's answer
In his own words: community approval first on multi-million-dollar projects, "especially when we are being asked to pay more in taxes and face the possible closure of neighborhood schools."
"I support the Texas Constitution's requirement of equal and fair taxation, and I will not vote to give special tax favors to the already wealthy."
Ryan's failed record
In August 2025 he voted with the 10-to-1 majority to set a tax rate 20 percent higher, triggering the Prop Q election. Voters rejected it, 63 to 37. Only one council member listened to taxpayers before the election. It was not Ryan Alter.
The same year the council asked residents for $110 million more, it found a billion for a secret gas plant and a billion and a half for Amazon's developer.
No green light on big spending without the community's approval, "especially when we are being asked to pay more in taxes." He would treat a 63 percent no as an instruction, not an obstacle.
"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."
Ryan's failed record
Voted yes on HOME Phase 1, the citywide rezoning that passed 9 to 2 after thirteen hours of public comment. And when the Austin Free Press found the council had rejected just 1 of 238 developer rezoning cases, Alter defended the pattern rather than questioning it.
"Listening to constituents about what level of commercial and residential development is appropriate for the district." The neighborhood's answer counts, even when a developer does not like it.
Carbon-free in public. Gas-fired behind closed doors.
Ryan Alter wrote the rule that new gas plants must come back to Council. They came back, in secret, and a week later he was sponsoring green resolutions. Hover over the card to see whose playbook that is.
The record
Ryan Alter on the $1 billion gas plants
Dec 2024Votes with a unanimous council for Austin Energy's plan: carbon-free by 2035. His own amendment requires any new gas peakers to come back to Council, with an explanation of why a carbon-free option would not do.
May 14Austin Energy comes back, asking for roughly $1 billion in new gas peaker plants.
May 21The council answers behind closed doors. The vote is secret. His vote is secret. It still is.
May 29Sponsors a public emissions resolution: "We are going to reduce our emissions, not increase them," eight days after his council authorized the gas plants in the dark.
Public guardrails. Secret authorization. Then a green press release.
Hover: the Abbott parallel
Greg Abbott on the grid
Nov 2025Celebrates Texas as the "epicenter of AI development" while data centers pile nearly 500 gigawatts of demand onto the grid.
June 2026Reverses: directs regulators to shield Texans from the infrastructure costs of the boom he courted, so it does not land on your electric bill.
Aug 2026Freezes new grid connections statewide pending audits, amid public backlash.
Cheer the demand. Dodge the bill. Act tough once voters notice. Same playbook.
Six criteria. Six answers Ryan Alter got wrong, on the record. District 5 deserves a council member who asks the neighborhood before he votes, not one who apologizes for the deal while voting for it. That is David Weinberg.
Every factual claim above is linked to its source. Characterizations of the record reflect Austin United PAC's assessment of public votes, filings, and statements. Ryan Alter's quotes are from his public statements at council meetings as reported by the linked outlets.
