Whitmire drew national attention when she defeated former Harris County Sheriff Jack Heard in her election as mayor.

The election drew national focus because it symbolized a major political realignment in the fourth-largest city in the United States.

[3] When former mayor Louie Welch attempted a comeback in the 1985 election, he was unable to mount a convincing argument that he could more ably lead the city out of a recession than Whitmire could.

The Straight Slate did force two city council members, Anthony Hall and Judson Robinson, into runoffs which they then won.

[3] Whitmire's string of victories ended with the 1991 mayoral election when she was defeated by long-time political power broker Bob Lanier and State Representative Sylvester Turner.

She then enrolled at the University of Houston, and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting in 1968.

Her husband's brother, John Whitmire, already a rising star in the Texas Democratic Party, was a willing political mentor.

Upon being inaugurated on January 2, 1978, Whitmire criticized the late then-Mayor Jim McConn for his inefficiency and lax administration.

[8] Becoming familiar with "sweetheart contracts", that had often been awarded to friends and supporters of influential office holders, she stopped the practice by rigorously enforcing observance of the Open Bidding laws.

The incumbent, Jim McConn, had already served two terms in the office and was supported by the business community, who had largely controlled city politics for decades.

However, McConn lost in the general election to Jack Heard, formerly Sheriff of Harris County and the City Controller, Whitmire, sending the race to a runoff between the latter two.

[10] While Heard had credibility with those who were more concerned about law and order or maintaining the status quo, Whitmire campaigned on her fiscal conservatism and moderate-to-liberal views on social issues.

As noted by the New York Times, The developers and bankers and oil millionaires who used to handpick candidates can no longer be said to dominate the political scene.

Houston is home today to too many different kinds of people, with too many different sets of values and interests, for any one group to control elections so easily.

Appointed as chairman of the Texas Highway Commission, he became a critic of Mayor Whitmire's plan for Houston Metro to build a monorail system.

Supporters of the Metro agency decided that it was prudent to compromise with Lanier, so they agreed to fund more street improvements, rather than concentrate solely on a rail system.

The hot-button issues for the 1991 election became fear of street crime and skepticism about the functionality of an expensive monorail system proposed by Whitmire.

[4] Whitmire commutes by air to work at the University of Maryland, where she is a professor at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership.

[12] Whitmire has received numerous awards for her efforts and accomplishments, including:[4] Soon after Whitmire left office, Bob Stein, a political scientist at Rice University, said that her legacy was to make the city operate more efficiently, citing improvements in fundamental operations like garbage collection and public transportation.