The race to replace Sheila Jackson Lee is on

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WASHINGTON — The race to succeed U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in her Houston district is already on, with at least three local politicians considering running.

Declared and potential Democratic candidates include former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, state Rep. Jarvis Johnson and Houston City Councilwoman Letitia Plummer. Amanda Edwards, who finished second in the district’s initial primary this year, says she’s still interested in “serving this community.”

However, since Jackson Lee already won the Democratic primary earlier this year, voters won’t decide who replaces her on the November ballot. The candidates will present their arguments to a group of Harris County Democratic officials.

The long-serving MP died of pancreatic cancer on July 19, leaving her seat vacant for the first time in three decades and just months before the general election.

The candidate will face Republican Lana Centonze in November. The district is all blue, however, so the Democratic candidate is presumed to win. The 18th Congressional District is one of two seats in Houston historically held by black Democrats, and Lee has faced few challenges during his 15 terms in Washington.

The Democratic Party’s executive committee for the 18th Congressional District has until Aug. 26, under state law, to choose a replacement for her on the November ballot. The committee is made up of the 88 elected Democratic precinct chairs in the district. Potential candidates will have an opportunity to explain their positions and priorities to the chairs.

Democratic candidates will be invited to a televised forum on August 10.

Local party officials have not yet said when they will call a meeting to decide on the candidate, but such a meeting must take place at least 10 days before the deadline.

Beyond the question of who will replace her on the ballot, the question is whether anyone will be elected to complete her current term through the end of the year.

Gov. Greg Abbott has the power to call a special election to fill the seat for the remainder of the term, which would leave the decision up to voters. Abbott has not said whether he would make such a decision, and state law does not require him to do so.

Johnson was the only declared candidate Tuesday afternoon. The Houston representative has served in the Texas House since 2016 and previously served on the Houston City Council. He ran for a state Senate seat earlier this year but narrowly lost to Molly Cook and will not return to the state House.

He also ran Jackson Lee as a primary candidate for his seat in 2010, but lost by a wide margin.

“Just as Joe Biden passed the torch to a willing and able candidate, I am ready to bring cohesion and strength, while fighting for the 18th District against Republican rule,” Johnson said in a statement.

Turner, meanwhile, told KHOU on Monday that he was “seriously considering” running, citing his longtime friendship with Jackson Lee. Turner served as mayor from 2016 to 2024; Lee ran to succeed him but lost in the December primary. In 2022, Turner made a surprise announcement that he had undergone treatment for bone cancer, but said he had made a full recovery.

After losing his mayoral race to former Senator John Whitmire, Jackson Lee filed for re-election to the House of Representatives. By then, Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards had already emerged as the leading candidate in the district’s primary, having dropped out of the mayoral race in deference to Jackson Lee. The race ended up being Lee’s most closely contested in decades, but she still beat Edwards by 22 points.

Edwards, a former Houston City Council member, said she was not ready to discuss the nomination out of respect for Jackson Lee’s family.

“While my interest in serving this community remains unchanged, I wish to honor and respect the sensitive timing of Congresswoman Jackson Lee’s passing, and would prefer to discuss it at a later time,” she said in a statement to the Tribune.

Plummer, who serves on the Houston City Council, said she is interested in running but would wait for a legal opinion on whether the city’s policy that requires council members to resign before running for other offices would apply to the unusual nomination process in the House race. Resigning her seat without securing the nomination would be difficult, Plummer said, but added that this race is an “opportunity that will probably never come around again.”

“Sheila Jackson Lee delivered, and you have to find an advocate and also have the connections to do that,” Plummer said. “Whoever fills that seat is going to have to figure out how to get federal money to the city and the county.”

Jackson Lee will lie in state in the City Hall rotunda on Monday.

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