Born into a much sleepier San Antonio, White is a 1972 graduate of Churchill High. He was among the first students to attend the school, which opened in 1966, and remembers cattle grazing in the open land around the campus.

White also recalls the novelty of his parents, both teachers, driving him down their unpaved street to the end of a runway to watch planes take off and land at what is now San Antonio International Airport. This was in the day when extended families lived in close proximity to each other. "When we’d go see my grandparents, we’d also see aunts and great aunts."

White, who left his hometown to study economics at Harvard, describes going "way out in the country" to the now-closed San Pedro Drive-in Theater or heading to Mi Tierra for Mexican cuisine.

As a teenager, White was a page in the Texas legislature, witnessing passage of the state’s first minimum wage standard and a range of civil rights laws. He also watched in awe as former U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan gave her first speech in the state senate.

"I learned from that experience how who was elected did make a difference."

While in high school, White recruited his fellow students to conduct voter registration drives on the West Side. While there, he encountered big names, such as civil rights stalwarts Willie Velasquez, founder of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP) in 1974; Matt Garcia, state representative from 1973 to 1983 and U.S. Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez.

"We saw a transformation in San Antonio politics, where people were at the table who hadn’t been at the table before. Neighborhoods that hadn’t gotten improvements before, suddenly got it," White says. Those lessons, he explains, shaped the kind of political leader he is today.

After graduating from Harvard, White earned his law degree from the University of Texas Law School. Andy Hernandez, who went on to hold a leadership position with SVREP, remembers White from their college days at UT. "He was a quiet guy who always worked hard." Hernandez describes the now bald White as the "long-haired hippie of the crowd.

"Would he make a great senator? If he’s as good a senator as he is a mayor, he’d be good. His record indicates that," Hernandez says.

White practiced law for more than a decade before being appointed U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy by the Clinton administration. In the 1990s, he pursued oil and gas business interests, dabbled in politics as chair of the Texas Democratic Party and led a construction and real estate firm. Meanwhile, he accepted positions on Houston civic committees.

White ran for mayor when Lee Brown, Houston’s first African-American mayor, reached the city’s term limit. The San Antonio native campaigned as a moderate businessman and was elected in a runoff in 2003, taking the oath to his first elected office Jan. 2, 2004. He was re-elected twice and amassed a record of unity, service, and business prosperity. White earned the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his service after Hurricane Katrina slammed New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, sending thousands of evacuees to Houston for safe harbor.

In his five years as mayor, White has focused on issues every city faces—stemming crime, creating job growth, providing opportunity for first-time homeowners, passing measures in support of a sustainable environment. He says his biggest accomplishment has been easing ethnic and partisan tensions he inherited and "getting everybody to focus on common goals."

With a year left as mayor, White announced his candidacy for the seat expected to be vacated by Hutchison. He contends the partisan atmosphere in Washington D.C. is too strident and leaders need to find common ground on key issues.

White says he is "running hard" but also admits his world will not fall apart if he is not elected. "I’m not one of these people who has to hold public office." If not elected, he’ll return to business or law.

"We have a great country, a country of great opportunity. Each generation tries to do better than the next. My parents taught me it’s what you give —it’s not what you take in life. We need that servant leadership in Texas, someone who will do what’s right for all the people in the state, and bring diverse elements of the state together to get things done. I know how to do that."

A lesson learned in his hometown.