At the front of a Huston-Tillotson University journalism class, Portia Riggins stood before a room of student reporters not as a professor or guest lecturer, but as a District 1 Austin City Council candidate.
“I’m so grateful to be here,” she told the students. “My name is Portia Riggins. I have filed as a candidate for Austin City Council.”
Then she added something unusual for a political candidate.
“I definitely wanted to make sure that I was honorable to you guys in showing up.”
The comment captured the tone of Riggins’ campaign: candid, rooted and tied to the East Austin community where she was
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