Layke Cole, an 18-year-old Whitesboro resident, said in a public Facebook post from Whitesboro that he is running for Whitesboro City Council, adding a young local voice to council politics in a nearby Grayson County city. For local voters, the council structure matters: Whitesboro’s city page says its five aldermen are elected at large, so each alderman answers to voters across the city rather than to one ward.
Cole said in the post that he made the announcement on his 18th birthday. The verified material reviewed for this report does not state an election cycle for his campaign.
Whitesboro’s official council page says the city’s governing body is made up of a mayor and five aldermen. Aldermen serve staggered two-year terms, and council elections are held in May, according to the city.
State eligibility rules put Cole’s age into context. Texas Secretary of State guidance for Type A city alderman candidates lists 18 as the candidate age requirement. The same guidance says candidates must meet state and city or ward residency rules and be registered voters by the filing deadline.
For the May 2, 2026 uniform local election cycle, the Secretary of State’s office set the filing window from Jan. 14 through 5 p.m. Feb. 13. Whitesboro’s 2026 election order called a general election for three full-term alderman seats, with election-day voting at 111 W. Main Street from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
That election order also said Whitesboro would contract with Grayson County Election Administration to run election duties and prepare ballots. Grayson County’s election-notices page listed a City of Whitesboro notice among the county’s May 2, 2026 local-election notices.
Whitesboro’s 2026 canvass recorded a 10-candidate contest for three two-year council seats. The canvass declared David M. Bertino, Ben Edwards and Jessica Edwards elected to terms beginning in May 2026.
Recent city records show that Whitesboro municipal elections can be decided by a relatively small share of the electorate. In 2023, the city canvass showed roughly 13% turnout, and a city resolution declared Dave Blaylock elected mayor and Barry Keller and Carla Woolsey elected aldermen.
The age of Cole’s announced campaign also comes against a broader turnout gap for young voters. In the U.S. Census Bureau’s November 2024 voting table, about 42% of Texas citizen voters ages 18 to 24 reported voting, compared with about 58% of the state’s total citizen voting-age population. The national table showed the same pattern, with younger citizen voters below the overall citizen voting-age rate.
For Gainesville readers, Whitesboro’s at-large system differs from Gainesville’s ward-based council elections. Gainesville’s city pages say six council members are elected from wards, the mayor is elected at large, and the city splits its ward races between even- and odd-numbered years.
_Editor's note: Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law._
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