Election officials in Texas met on Tuesday evening to vote for former Houston mayor Sylvester Turner to fill the vacant seat left by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who died on July 19 of pancreatic cancer.
Turner defeated five other candidates for the slot and will likely be elected in November as the 18th district skews Democrat. His primary competition came from former Houston city council member Amanda Edwards, who had unsuccessfully opposed Jackson Lee earlier this year in Texas’s primary election.
Seventy-eight Democrat precinct chairs participated in the election, which was held at Houston’s Wheeler Baptist Church.
Turner edged out Edwards in the first round of voting, taking 35 votes over her 34. Since no candidate received a 51 percent majority, a runoff was triggered between the top two candidates. He won the full victory 41–37 in the final vote. Turner was favored to win Jackson Lee’s spot on the ballot, and had already received the endorsement of her two children.
In between voting rounds, Turner delivered a brief speech to highlight his platform issues, including education, affordable healthcare, climate change, and affordable housing.
Edwards, who is over 20 years younger than Turner, spoke about similar issues in her speech, but also noted that President Joe Biden had stepped aside for Vice President Kamala Harris, saying “We need someone who’s going to have bold ideas and build upon the strength of [Jackson Lee’s] strength and legacy, but move us forward.”
Turner had been a member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 139 from 1989 to 2016. During that time he was vice chair of the State Affairs Committee and, later, vice chair of the district’s Appropriations Committee. He then served as mayor of Houston from 2016 to 2024, when he stepped down because of term limits.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot has announced another special election on Nov. 5 to replace Jackson Lee until January. Jackson Lee’s daughter, Erica Lee Carter, is expected to run to fill the vacant seat left by her mother, but did not compete for the full two-year term slot, which will be decided on the same day, Nov. 5.
The special election runoff is also expected to be heavily contested, despite the position being temporary.
Sheila Jackson Lee served in Congress for 29 years; she was the Deputy Minority Whip and sponsored the legislation that established Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
