SAN ANTONIO – Former District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry, who paused his political career after a drunken hit-and-run incident, has confirmed he will return to run for mayor in San Antonio’s 2025 election.
“Yes, I’m in — in all the way,” Perry told KSAT in a phone interview Friday afternoon.
The former Northeast Side councilman said he has been doing “a lot praying” and believes he has more to contribute. He said supporters have also urged him to run.
“You know, they recognize the incident, but they said, ‘Hey, you’re human like everybody else. That could have been me,’” Perry told KSAT.
“What they’re saying,” Perry continued, “is, ‘Clayton, you need to get in and run and provide that leadership that you did while you was (sic) on city council. You had a lot of great things done and initiatives and...need to get back out there.’”
The former U.S. Air Force officer was first elected in 2017 to San Antonio City Council where he served as a reliably conservative voice. However, his political career was derailed after he fled the scene of a crash in Nov. 2022.
After drinking for several hours at a North Side bar, Perry plowed his Jeep Wrangler into the front of another car waiting at a light. A San Antonio police officer found Perry in his own backyard, smelling of alcohol, with the Jeep still running in the driveway.
However, Perry denied having driven and was not charged until later.
Perry eventually admitted to causing the crash, though, and pleaded “no contest” to misdemeanor drunk driving and failure to stop and give information charges, for which he got 12 months of probation and avoided a conviction on his record.
Perry said, “I own every bit” of what he referred to as his “incident.” However, he also tried to downplay how much he had to drink that night, saying that while he hadn’t been through the surveillance video himself, his attorney said it was less than what SAPD claimed.
A KSAT analysis of the Evil Olive’s surveillance video found police had undercounted how much Perry drank. The final tally ended up being eight beers, six shots, one old fashioned cocktail and the dregs of someone else’s drinks — a little more than 15 in all.
Based on just 14.5 drinks, police calculated Perry’s blood alcohol content was 0.2531 when he left the bar — more than three times the legal limit is 0.08.
The rest of the council gave Perry a “no confidence” vote, but scrapped calls for him to resign. He took a brief “sabbatical” after the crash, during which time former Councilman Mike Gallagher filled in for him.
Though he returned to finish his third term, Perry decided against running for a fourth, saying, “Anything less could be a distraction from the work that still needs to be done to move District 10 forward.”
Perry said he was “totally humbled” by the crash and that he has “paid his dues.”
While he said he knows some people won’t forgive him, Perry said “99.9%” of people he’s talked to or who have talked to him are on board for him to return.
“I tell you, with 12 to 15 people running for mayor, it’s going to be a wide-open race,” Perry said. “There’s going to be a lot of choices, and I will just be one of those choices to move forward with. And I think I got a dadgum good story to tell on my time, my experience and my leadership capabilities and what I did on (city) council for six years.”
Perry has not yet filed a campaign treasurer appointment to officially launch a campaign. Once he does, he will be the 14th candidate in the race, including three current council members.
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