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Deb Shinder (Mayor of Rowlett, Texas, candidate 2025)
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Deb Shinder ran in a special election to the Mayor of Rowlett in Texas. She was on the ballot in the special general election on May 3, 2025.[source]
Shinder completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Deb Shinder provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on February 12, 2025:
- Birth place: Dallas, Texas
- High school: Skyline High School, Dallas
- Gender: Female
- Profession: Retired
- Prior offices held:
- Rowlett City Council Place 6 (2022-Prsnt)
- Seagoville City Councilmember at Large (1988-1990)
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign slogan: Excellence through experience; vision with values; ability and availability
- Campaign website
- Campaign Facebook
Elections
General election
Special general election for Mayor of Rowlett
Deb Shinder and Jeff Winget ran in the special general election for Mayor of Rowlett on May 3, 2025.
Candidate | ||
Deb Shinder (Nonpartisan)  | ||
| Jeff Winget (Nonpartisan) | ||
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Shinder in this election.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Deb Shinder completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Shinder's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I've lived in Rowlett for over 20 years and served on the bond committee, charter commission, Board of Adjustment and P&Z before being elected to the council in May 2022. In my almost 3 years on the Rowlett council, I've served as deputy mayor pro tem and mayor pro tem.
I founded and chair the public safety subcommittee and chair the court governance and government affairs subcommittees. I serve as Rowlett's representative on the Rockwall County Emergency Services Corporation, Infrastructure Planning Coalition, and Strategic Planning Committee. I was selected to be part of the Texas Municipal League (TML) legislative policy summit and served on the TML broadband committee.
I was an instructor and training coordinator at the North Central Texas Council of Governments Regional Police Academy and Eastfield College Criminal Justice Training program in the 1990s. I have written books on cybercrime, cybersecurity, and network security for Syngress, Cisco Press, Microsoft Press and others. I was awarded the Microsoft MVP in security for 14 years in a row.
I'm now retired and can devote all my time and attention to city business. My husband, Tom, is a senior program manager at Microsoft. My daughter retired from the Navy with 20 years and my son is a professional chess coach in internation chess.- I have the experience, training, and knowledge in municipal government to hit the ground running as mayor. I can analyze issues from different perspectives to make the best decisions for the city. In the mayor's absence in early 2024, I served as head of the city during a major weather event and issued a local disaster declaration after, along with the city manager, fire and police chiefs, and emergency management coordinator, assessing the impact on many of our citizens and their property.
- I have demonstrated that I have the courage to stand up for what I believe in, even when it means being the lone voice or the lone vote on the council. I research the issues, analyze the information, consider all the relevant factors, and make a decision based on logic and my guiding principles.
Those principles include transparency, responsible stewardship of taxpayer money, fairness to all parties, but putting the best interests of the citizens first.
I can't make everyone happy, but I will listen to all sides of the argument. I am not afraid to "just say no" to non-emergency debt without voter approval, excessive multifamily housing, and large cash incentives without ROI. - I believe before we can formulate a cohesive vision for our city, we have to define our identity and decide what we want our city to be when it grows up. I want to reassess and revamp our overall strategic plan and align it with the newly developed downtown plan. I led the effort to give citizens a voice in how our downtown area develops around the municipal complex that will house direly needed public safety and animal shelter facilities that were approved in the 2023 bond election. I acknowledge that our city has a less-than-stellar reputation in terms of citizen- and business-friendliness, but I believe that can be changed and is a key factor in creating the kind of community we can all be proud of.
I also am passionate about the natural beauty of the lake and all the wildlife that inhabit its shores. I want to preserve those habitats and at the same time create more recreational activities and spaces in our lakeside parks, which we have begun with the incorporation of DORBA trails into Pecan Grove Park.
Next, transparency in governance is the basis of trust, and without the trust of the citizens, staff and council can't do their jobs effectively. It goes without saying we must abide by the law, but legality should be the MINIMUM standard - we need to raise the bar higher so that our actions aren't just legal, they're also ethical.
Just because we can doesn't mean we should, and just because we don't have to doesn't mean we shouldn't.
Finally, we must never lose the "citizens first" mentality. The people elected us to represent THEM - not developers, city staff, or our own personal interests. We must remember that we work for them, not the other way around. We must never descend into the "us vs them" mindset that destroys our effectiveness as public servants.
To spend the taxpayer's dollars as carefully and frugally as if they were your own. To do your homework, study every issue on which you're called upon to make a decision, listen to everyone on all sides, and do your best to eliminate any personal bias in that decision-making process.
To represent the city to private businesses and organizations, and to other governmental entities at the local, state, and national level in a way that reflects positively on your city and its citizens. To always be professional in your dealings with others in your role as mayor. To conduct meetings according to the adopted rules and as the chair, to enforce those rules fairly and equally.
To remember that you are the leader of the council, not the boss of the council. To involve other councilmembers as much as possible or as much as they desire and share responsibilities (e.g. on subcommittees and as liaisons) and ensure that they get the information they need and that you communicate with them to the extent that you can within the parameters of the quorum laws.
Leadership is about doing what has to be done in spite of opposition, making decisions that are based on logical, and not taking it personally when others don't see your vision as clearly as you do. Leadership requires perseverance, diplomacy, and sometimes compromise - without ever compromising your core principles.
Leadership isn't about doing it all yourself. It's about delegating, mentoring, letting others make mistakes and learn from them. It's about setting an example, offering guidance, providing support, and then getting out of the way. Good leaders know their people, and they know how to read a room. They know when to lead from behind and have their team members' backs and when to get out in front and take point and put themselves first in the line of fire.
The mayor also has additional responsibilities. S/he runs the council meetings and is the ceremonial head of the city and that's a lot of work. It's not difficult work but it requires a lot of time. It includes issuing proclamations, attending events both within and outside the city and representing the city in meetings with officials from other cities and at the state and national levels. It involves making (and often writing) speeches. It means going to breakfasts, luncheons, dinners, and many purely social events. It means being invited to graduations, promotions, retirement celebrations, and much more.
In Texas, the mayor is also in charge of emergency operations decisions in case of a disaster. This is a tremendous responsibility, arguably the biggest responsibility a mayor has. As mayor pro tem, I stepped into this role in early 2024 during a weather incident that ultimately resulted in my issuing a local disaster declaration. As a former police officer and a member of our city's COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disaster) board, I felt prepared for this, but many mayors are elected without any emergency services or emergency management experience whatsoever.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
