HOUSTON, Texas (CN) — Sylvester Turner, former mayor of Houston, will appear on the ballot in Texas' general election after the Harris County Democratic Party on Tuesday elected him as their candidate to take over Sheila Jackson Lee’s seat in Congress.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who had represented Texas’s 18th District since 1995, died suddenly in July after a bout with pancreatic cancer, leaving her House seat open for the first time in three decades.
79 party precinct chairs in the district cast their votes Tuesday to nominate the Democratic candidate for the November general election from the set of candidates entered the race in the weeks that followed Jackson Lee's passing.
After an inconclusive first round between six candidates, Sylvester Turner won by just four votes, 41 to 37, in the runoff against former city councilwoman Amanda Edwards.
Turner emerged as an early frontrunner in the field of candidates. By Monday, Turner had gathered the support of 30 precinct chairs in the district and a long list of other endorsements — including from Jackson Lee’s two adult children, the Houston Chronicle editorial board and a wide range of prominent Houston and Harris County Democrats.
Edwards, who lost to Jackson Lee in the March primary, picked up the campaign she started when Jackson Lee announced her unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2023. After the first round of voting, she trailed Turner by a single vote, but ultimately came up short.
In his very brief acceptance, Turner called for unity as the party heads towards November. Like many Texas Democrats, he eyed putting their support behind Colin Allred in his bid to oust Republican Ted Cruz from the Senate and on getting Vice President Kamala Harris into the White House.
But Turner and the other candidates used their brief time at the podium to address local issues as much as national ones. Turner called back to his four terms as mayor and his policies then, while Edwards repeatedly harkened back to Hurricane Harvey, which still lingers in the city’s memory seven years on.
State representatives Christina Morales and Jarvis Johnson, city councilwoman Letitia Plumber and local businessman Robert Slater were also selected for the first vote, but all failed to break single digits.
Candidates still have until August 22nd to file for the special election that Governor Greg Abbott has called alongside the general election. The winner of that contest, decided on the ballot alongside the general election in November, would serve the final two months of Jackson Lee’s term.
Erica Lee Carter, Sheila Jackson Lee’s daughter, announced her bid for the special election on Monday. So far, no other candidates have announced their special election bid.
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