Stephen Ira Adler (born March 23, 1956) is an American lawyer and politician who was the 58th mayor of Austin, Texas from 2015 to 2023.
Adler has been a practicing attorney in Austin in the areas of eminent domain and civil rights law for 35 years. For eight years he worked as the chief of staff and later general counsel to Democratic State Senator Eliot Shapleigh in the Texas Legislature. He has also worked with or board chaired Austin-based nonprofits and civic organizations, including the Texas Tribune, Anti-Defamation League, and Ballet Austin.
A Democrat, Adler was elected to be mayor of Austin in the 2014 mayoral race and was sworn in on January 6, 2015; he was re-elected in 2018. He was the first mayor of Austin to serve under the 10-ONE council system. During Adler's tenure he lifted a ban on camping, sitting, or lying down in public causing Texas governor Greg Abbott to threaten the deployment of state resources to combat the move. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Adler declared a local state of emergency and cancelled Austin's annual SXSW events in 2020. He came under controversy for flying in his private plane to Cabo San Lucas while urging people in Austin to stay home amid rising cases of COVID-19.
Early life and education
Steve Adler was born to a Jewish family and first lived in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Kensington, Maryland. His father was a World War II veteran with the U.S. Navy who later became a film editor with CBS News. His mother was a homemaker.
In 1978, he graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He then attended the University of Texas at Austin School of Law and received his juris doctor in 1982. After graduating from the University of Texas, Adler remained in Austin to practice law.
Legal career
In the mid-1980s, Steve Adler co-founded the Barron, Graham & Adler LLP law firm, later Barron & Adler, LLP. He represented primarily landowners who were dealing with eminent domain and condemnation cases where the government or a private company seek to acquire their property. In addition to this practice, Adler spent most of the 1980s, his early legal career, doing civil rights employment discrimination cases. This work included representing women as well as Hispanic, African American and other minority workers in federal court, before the Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission and on matters filed with the Austin Human Rights Commission. He represented clients seeking equal treatment and opportunity in the workplace, redress from sexual harassment and denial of equal pay for equal work.
Adler has argued before state appellate courts, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the Texas Supreme Court and was named a Texas Super Lawyer from 2007 to 2013 and one of the Best Lawyers in America in 2007–2014.
Early political career
In 1996, Steve Adler assisted El Paso Democrat Eliot Shapleigh in his run for Texas State Senate. He then served as Senator Shapleigh's chief of staff and later general counsel from 1997 to 2005.
During Adler's time working in the Texas Senate, he primarily focused on fairness in school funding formulas, teachers' salary issues, state budget policy, environmental protection, and equity and access issues.
Mayor of Austin (2015–2023)
Elections
Steve Adler began his campaign in January 2014 for Austin Mayor and ran on a platform of reforming governance at the Austin City Council. His primary issues included governance, traffic congestion, education, affordability, environment and water, and neighborhoods. Adler entered into a run-off with City Council Member Mike Martinez in November after both candidates failed to get a majority of votes. Adler won the run-off on December 16, 2014, with 67% percent of the total vote.
Adler won reelection in 2018, garnering 59% of the vote in a 7-way race. He was ineligible to run for reelection in 2022 due to term limits.
Tenure
Adler is affiliated with the Democratic Party.
