The 2001 Houston mayoral election took place on November 6, 2001. Incumbent Mayor Lee Brown was re-elected to a third term. Officially the race was non-partisan. None of the candidates received a majority of the votes, so a run-off election was held on December 1, 2001.

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2001 Houston mayoral election

← 1999 November 6, 2001 (first round) December 1, 2001 (runoff) 2003 →
Turnout	28.65% (first round) 31.28% (runoff)
Candidate Lee P. Brown Orlando Sanchez Chris Bell Party Nonpartisan Nonpartisan Nonpartisan First round 125,282 43.46% 115,967 40.23% 45,739 15.87% Runoff 165,866 51.67% 155,164 48.33% Eliminated
Mayor of Houston before election Lee P. Brown Elected Mayor of Houston Lee P. Brown

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Lee P. Brown was elected mayor of Houston, the first black person to do so, in 1997, and was reelected in 1999. Brown announced that he would seek reelection to a third term, the maximum allowed due to term limits, on August 26, 2001.^[1]

• Chris Bell, member of the Houston City Council^[2] (Democratic)
• Lee P. Brown, Mayor of Houston^[1] (Democratic)
• Larry DeVoy, electrician^[3]
• Anthony Dutrow, Socialist Workers Party candidate in Utah's 3rd congressional district in 1990 election^[3]
• Orlando Sanchez, member of the Houston City Council^[2] (Republican)
• Luis Ullrich, plumber^[3]

City controller Sylvia Garcia and city councilor Carroll Robinson considered running.^[4][5]

The mayoral election is formally nonpartisan, but Brown and Chris Bell were aligned with the Democratic Party while Orlando Sanchez was aligned with the Republican Party.^[6] A forum was held at Kingwood College on October 2,^[7] and televised debate was hosted on October 10.^[8]

Brown was accused of causing the death of a fire captain due to the city's policy of three people per fire truck rather than the standard four. Brown proposed a $16 million expansion to the fire department's budget after the incident, but Sanchez attacked it as a "self-serving, despicable and cynical act".^[6] Bell's wife received a fake anthrax letter. Brown and Sanchez also reported receiving suspicious mail.^[9][10]

The Democratic National Committee spent $75,000 to aid Brown and DNC chair Terry McAuliffe campaigned for him. The Republican National Committee donated $15,000 to Sanchez's campaign. Elaine Chao and Mel Martínez, members of President George W. Bush's cabinet, campaigned for Sanchez. 60% of Hispanic voters supported Sanchez in the initial election.^[11][12]