I doubt he’ll listen, but it can’t hurt to try.
Rep. Sylvester Turner
When the Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee died in July, the 18th Congressional District mourned the loss of a dedicated and longtime public servant. Fortunately, there was already a well-publicized election on the calendar, and the race to replace her found a handy special election date.
Last November, district voters chose both her replacement and their next representative at the polls. Jackson Lee’s daughter, Erica Lee Carter, would fill the remainder of her term in a lame-duck session and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner would take over the following term.
After Turner’s sudden death last week, the district once again has an empty seat, and voters are once again without representation. But the stakes are a bit different this time around.
The U.S. Constitution gives Gov. Greg Abbott the duty to call a special election, but it doesn’t say how quickly he has to do it — and now, he has a political incentive to drag his feet. The seat is in a solidly Democratic district, and Abbott, of course, is a Republican. Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the U.S. House, so every vote is important. By keeping vacant a seat that’s almost certain to go to Democrats, Abbott improves his party’s chances of passing legislation.
Shortly after Turner’s death, Abbott said he didn’t yet have a plan to call a special election.
“This has real national implications,” Mark Jones, a fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute, told the editorial board.
State law makes it easy enough for Abbott to, by the last of week of March, call for a special election that would fall on May 3, the next uniform election date. But he could also delay and set it instead for the Nov. 4 election, assuming he doesn’t call an emergency election before then. Assuming a possible runoff, that could leave the seat empty until the end of the year.
See here for some background. Abbott’s gonna do what Abbott’s gonna do. I don’t actually think he’s especially likely to drag this out, but the cold truth is that he has no reason to play it fair. As I’ve said before, I think a clear reading of the law suggests that he is supposed to act in a timely fashion, but that’s my interpretation and there’s no enforcement mechanism other than winning a longshot lawsuit. We’ll know soon enough what he’s up to – if he doesn’t call the special by the end of next week, it’s hard to see this election happening in May.
November would give candidates a more equal footing against people that may have the upper hand in the election, like Amanda Edwards who seems to be the darling of white progressives and their allies in the Democratic Party.
CD18 shouldn’t be left un-represented for that long, nor a Democratic seat left empty in a very tight US House while Trump and Musk rampage through our government. If your preferred candidate loses, they have a year to rally their supporters before the mid-term primary. As there isn’t much on the ballot in an off-year November election (with COH going to 4 year terms) except maybe some constitutional amendment items, I’m not sure what benefit that has for turnout or any specific candidate other than maybe a little more time to get themselves in front of the voters. More likely, it just gets more candidates, splinters the field, and sends it to a December or January runoff.
I am not a lawyer, but the law does state that a special must be called “as soon as practicable”, which my read of it would be “if we have time to sue you, you have time to print out the form letter and sign it, Greg”.