Ronald Adrian Nirenberg (born April 11, 1977)[1] is an American politician who is the mayor of San Antonio, Texas.
Prior to his election, Nirenberg served as a member of the San Antonio City Council for District 8 for two terms.
His Roman Catholic mother is half-Filipino and was born in Penang, Malaysia (then part of the colonial British protectorate of Malaya).
Nirenberg attended Trinity University in San Antonio and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in communication.
[8] After college, he was a program director for the Annenberg Public Policy Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania[9] and served as the General Manager of KRTU-FM, the radio station at Trinity University.
Nirenberg had run a grassroots campaign that consisted primarily of volunteers, including college students and recent graduates.
Nirenberg and Taylor finished with the two highest vote totals and advanced to a runoff election held June 10, 2017.
[13] In so doing, Nirenberg became the first person in twenty years to defeat an incumbent mayor of San Antonio who sought re-election.
[16] His main opponent was identified as Greg Brockhouse, a member of the San Antonio City Council who also took office in 2017 and frequently objected to Nirenberg's platform.
[26][27][28][29] In 2013, Nirenberg endorsed a city ordinance that bans discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Taylor also opposed the city's filing of a lawsuit against a then-new state law that defines a misdemeanor offense for municipal officials who refuse to cooperate with federal authorities seeking to halt illegal immigration.
[6] As mayor-elect, Nirenberg called upon the city council to endorse the Paris climate accord even though U.S. President Donald Trump had announced plans to remove the United States from the agreement.
[47][48] On March 18, 2020, Nirenberg issued an order for the temporary closure of all non-essential businesses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, making San Antonio the last major city in Texas to do so.