Rep. Sylvester Turner
Gov. Greg Abbott has set Nov. 4 as the special election date to fill the congressional seat left vacant by former Rep. Sylvester Turner’s death — a timeline that leaves the solidly Democratic seat vacant for at least seven months as Republicans look to drive President Donald Trump’s agenda through a narrowly divided Congress.
Turner, a former Houston mayor and Democratic state lawmaker, died March 5, two months into his first term representing Texas’ 18th Congressional District. State law does not specify a deadline for the governor to order a special election.
With Turner’s seat vacant, the House breaks down to 220 Republicans and 213 Democrats, allowing the GOP to win a majority on the floor even with three defections from their ranks. If Turner’s seat were filled, likely by a Democrat, the GOP could withstand only two defections.
Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader, pressured Abbott to call a special election, threatening to sue if the Republican governor continued to hold off on scheduling the contest.
Christian Menefee, the acting Harris County attorney and a Democrat running for the seat, had also threatened legal action if Abbott did not order a special election. He recently called on the governor to set the election for June 7, the date of the runoffs for the May 3 uniform election — when voters will elect representation for many local governments across Texas.
According to state law and precedent, Abbott had until March 18 to set the contest for May 3. He also could have declared an “emergency” special election, which allows for an election to take place outside the May or November uniform election dates.
Turner was elected to Congress last year after his predecessor and political ally, former U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, died of pancreatic cancer while also serving out her term. She spent nearly three decades representing the deep-blue district, which encompasses downtown Houston and several of the city’s historic neighborhoods, including the Third Ward and parts of The Heights and Acres Homes.
Also running to succeed Turner is former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards, a Democrat who twice ran for the seat in 2024. She was defeated by Jackson Lee in the March primary; Jackson Lee died before the general election, opening the party’s nomination to a vote of local party officials, who narrowly picked Turner over Edwards.
Isaiah Martin, a former staffer for Jackson Lee, also jumped into the race last month.
In a statement, Menefee blasted Abbott for not setting the election for an earlier date.
“It is unconscionable to leave nearly 800,000 people in this district without representation in Congress for most of the year,” Menefee said. “We’ll go through hurricane season, budget battles, and attacks on Social Security and Medicaid with no one at the table fighting for us. Governor Abbott knows how to move quickly — he’s done it for other districts. He just chose not to for us.”
See here for the previous update. Abbott had some more insulting BS to say about Harris County, which is par for the course for him. Look, this election should have been called for May and it could have been called for June. Once it was too late for May, I assumed it would happen in November. It was never credible to me that Abbott would try to wait until next year, and if he had I would have expected those threatened lawsuits to have a decent chance at forcing him to do what he just did. I’ll be on the lookout for those April finance reports, and we’ll see if anyone else jumps into the race. I will definitely do interviews for this in the fall. Houston Landing and the Chron have more.
How is this whole situation going to effect voters’ attitudes about their prospective candidates?
Do both parties choose a candidate to be on the ballot, or are all candidates eligible going to be on the ballot?
Although the major issue in Governor[sic] Abbott’s decision to suppress the vote of 788,000 (approx) residents of District 18 is focused on his disregard for fair representation, I would add a couple of ideas that could expand the reach of the Democrats’ outrage. First, in the November 2024 election, 30% of voters supported the GOP candidate. It seems to me that percentage could be expanded to mean that about 236,000 people in District 18 support Republicans. Therefore, the Governor[sic] is throwing his own constituency under the bus. Reach out to disenfranchised Republicans and ask whether or not it matters to them. Second, focus on the services provided when the District would have a representative in place. What burdens are on DC staff (if there are any) without a representative? Details would be helpful, I believe, in demonstrating the need for a representative sooner rather than later.
David, the usual structure for a special election is that all candidates interested run in an open primary, with their party affiliation listed. So you could have 7 Ds, 2 Rs, and 1 Independent, as an example. (In the special election for state house district 145 in 2019, there were 6 Ds, 1 R, and 1 Libertarian in the first round, with a run-off between the leading candidates, both Ds, five weeks later) If no one gets 50%, there is a later run-off.
RE: In the November 2024 election, 30% of voters supported the GOP candidate.
In theory a Republican candidate could make it into the runoff in a special election with 30%. But in a heavily Democratic district, that would be unlikely even in the first round (unless there is only one GOP candidate and many Dems to spread the Dem vote on the other side. But the GOP candidate would have a very low chance of prevailing in the run-0ff against one of the Democrats, so why even bother?
As for the argument of GOP voters being thrown under the bus by Abbott, it seems to me that the reasoning is flawed. Here is why: If the open-seat contest is combined with the general election, the turnout will be higher and more voters of both parties will be involved in picking a winner. In an open special election, by contrast, the GOP voters will just waste their vote if it’s a forgone conclusion that some Democrat will win. So, not much of an incentive to even show up unless something better is also on the ballot.
But note that in a general election, the votes of Republican voters in heavily Democratic districts (the ones that they can’t win) will still count for the vote-total in larger districts (like court of appeals districts) and in state-wide contests. So their votes in those races will not be wasted. In statewide races it may be a foregone conclusion that the GOP candidate will win, but that’s not true of all the court of appeals races, many of which that have gone back and forth between Dems and Goppers in the past decade.
Am I missing something?
Wolfgang, yes. This November there will be no statewide contests on the ballot except for possibly constitutional amendments, so GOP influence in statewide or court of appeals contests is irrelevant in this instance.
Mainstream, thanks, if that is true. Goes to show that exchanges like this one can improve the general knowledge.
I thought the new Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock (Hecht’s term running through end of 2026) and his equally appointed successor in Blacklock’s former place/position on the SCOTX (Sullivan) had to face the voters at the next election.
BALLOTPEDIA HAS THIS:
In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a replacement who must be confirmed by the Texas Senate. The appointee serves until the next general election, in which he or she may compete to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term
Does anyone have an Election Code cite to verify or debunk this?