Frisco mayoral candidate Rod Vilhauer (right), a retired construction business owner, listens to a constituent following a mayoral forum at Frisco Lakes, a retirement community in Frisco, March 16, 2026.
This story is the first in a series of four profiles of the mayoral candidates in Frisco.
After a community input night at Lone Star High School in Frisco last September, Rod Vilhauer began to set his sights on City Hall. He was there with members of his church to speak to the school board in support of Frisco ISD schools keeping the Ten Commandments posted in classrooms, as the district faced a lawsuit
As Vilhauer, 65, walked out of the school after his speech, he said a woman grabbed him by the arm and asked him to run for office. That woman was Stephanie Elad, a school board trustee who is married to City Council member Jared Elad.
“That was the first time the thought even crossed my mind,” Vilhauer said at a small gathering of supporters in a friend’s living room in Newman Village, a gated community. “I started putting a burden on my heart.”
On May 2, Frisco voters will weigh in on an open seat for mayor for the first time in nine years.
Related: Hot topics in Frisco mayoral race: A $100K donation, comparing immigrants to rats and more
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Vilhauer, a retired construction business owner, has made waves on social media for his Christian conservative views. He backed out of a candidate forum held at a mosque to attend an alternate event at Elevate Life Church, where he is a member, and later doubled down on his views opposing Islam in Frisco in online videos. He has been endorsed by Kaylee Campbell, a conservative influencer who encouraged her followers to go to Frisco City Hall two months ago to protest alleged H-1B fraud and the growing number of Indian immigrants in the city. On a recent podcast, he said that immigrants were moving “in and out of Frisco like rats.”
But Vilhauer touts his involvement in the early years of the city’s development as what sets him apart from his three opponents. He is running against two former City Council members and a former Frisco ISD board president.
Vilhauer moved to Frisco in 1986 from a small farm town in Oklahoma. He started Rodman, a construction company that NBA star Dennis Rodman invested in, and served on the city’s planning and zoning commission for six years in the ‘90s.
“I have watched this city grow,” Vilhauer said to a group of about fifteen residents in his trademark jeans, cowboy boots and suit jacket. “I've built … half the thoroughfares here.”
Rodman shuttered in 2010, laying off 242 employees. Vilhauer said he used much of his personal wealth to make sure every job was completed and bills were paid. In 2019, an excavation company Vilhauer founded was investigated by federal authorities for hiring undocumented workers. The government seized $1.8 million from company accounts but no criminal charges were filed against Vilhauer. He has said he is “a staunch opponent of illegal immigration” and that an initial federal case in 2015 that triggered the investigation was dismissed.
Frisco mayoral candidates John Keating (from left), Shona Sowell, Mark Hill and Rod Vilhauer participate in a forum at Frisco Lakes, a retirement community in Frisco, March 16, 2026.
Vilhauer said his knowledge of how things get built would be an asset if elected mayor. He has criticized city officials for what he sees as the glacial pace of construction on Main Street, which hampered downtown businesses for months. He said the project should have taken eight months, not 19.
“I don't know if you guys have ever heard but there's such a thing as early completion bonuses,” he quipped at a candidate forum last month.
Vilhauer said he would also prioritize attracting big businesses to Frisco and lamented the fact that the city has lost several corporate headquarters to Plano. He said attracting corporations is key to maintaining the city’s tax base and the high level of city services residents expect.
“I know what balance in a budget looks like,” Vilhauer said. “This city is a hog at the trough.”
He said as mayor, he would improve decorum at council meetings, citing a March meeting where discussions about a warehouse development planned near the Richwoods neighborhood got heated.
Related: Frisco council hits pause on changes to public comment, says issue was ‘politicized’
“I don't care if it's the Indian people or it's us … all they're doing in those meetings is they're screaming and yelling at each other,” Vilhauer said. “Would Trump let that happen at one of his meetings?”
Vilhauer has acknowledged he may have the lowest name recognition among the four candidates because his opponents have all served in local office before. He has leaned into this and promised to reject campaign donations from real estate developers, an issue close to the heart of residents who think the city has grown too fast.
“I’m not for rent, I’m not for sale,” Vilhauer said.
Although he’s been endorsed by Campbell and other conservative activists who have harshly criticized Frisco’s growing South Asian population, Vilhauer says he has met with members of the Indian community and wants to work with them.
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Vilhauer
City councils in Texas are nonpartisan, but for Vilhauer, the election on May 2 is a referendum on conservative values in Frisco. He told his supporters at the Newman Village event he often comes back to what his pastor, Keith Craft, told him when he shared his plans to run for mayor.
“Absolutely,” Craft told Vilhauer. “We need to fill every seat in this city with believers, conservative people.”
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