A special election will be conducted on November 5, as revealed by Governor Greg Abbott, in order to elect a representative for the remainder of the term for former U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee’s vacant seat.
This special election will be conducted to elect an official who will represent Texas’ 18th Congressional District for the two months that are left in the current Congress.
The general election underway will produce a representative for the district for the full two-year term, which will commence in 2025, with Houston-area electorates voting on both elections simultaneously.
Early voting for both the special and general elections is scheduled to commence on October 21.
Sheila Jackson Lee, who formerly occupied the seat, passed away on July 19 due to pancreatic cancer at the age of the age of 74. Jackson Lee was popular among Houston Democrats and was one of the longest-serving members of Texas’ congressional delegation.
Democrats will now need to pick a new person to appear on the general election ballot since Jackson Lee won the Democratic primary in March. The 88 Democratic precinct chairs in her district will stand in as electorates to decide who will replace Jackson Lee on August 13.
Those who will make it as candidates for the full-term nomination include former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards, state Representative Jarvis Johnson, Houston City Council member Letitia Plummer, and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
Eligible Texans who wish to participate in the special election can file with the Secretary of State by August 22 to place their name on the ballot, except for the full-term nominee selected by the Democrats in August and Lana Centonze, the Republican candidate. These candidates will not be able to appear on the same ballot twice.
The Chair of the Harris County Democrats, Mike Doyle, has criticized the special election as a means to create confusion and problems in the voting process that will be conducted in November. Doyle pointed out that Abbott was not required to set a special election for the short-term seat, which will result in voters seeing two ballots for the same office.