Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is the Democrats’ pick for Jackson Lee seat

Matthew Choi, Texas Tribune
August 14, 2024 

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) speaks during a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing in June 2022. Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images

"Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is the Democrats’ pick for Jackson Lee seat in Congress" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

WASHINGTON — Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is on a glide path to be the next congressman from Houston, after Harris County Democrats selected him Tuesday to be the Democratic candidate for the seat vacated by the late U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.

A committee of 88 party officials in the 18th district were invited to vote at a Tuesday night meeting for the next Democratic candidate. Turner won by a slim margin, securing 41 votes. Former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards came in second with 37. The district is heavily Democratic, and Turner is favored to win the general election in November.

The Harris Democratic Party selected the candidate because Jackson Lee died too close to the general election to hold another primary. Jackson Lee died last month amid a battle with pancreatic cancer. She had won the Democratic primary for the seat in March against Edwards.

Edwards put her name back in the ring for the party’s nomination after Jackson Lee’s death. Robert Slater, a restaurateur, also expressed interest in the party’s nomination after losing the Democratic primary earlier this year. Slater trailed far behind Edwards and Jackson Lee with only 2.7% of the vote in the primary. Jackson Lee secured 60% while Edwards got 37.3%.

Turner and Edwards each failed to secure a majority of the votes in the first round of voting Tuesday, putting the two in a runoff, which took place immediately after the first round. Turner initially secured 35 votes, and Edwards secured 34. They were far ahead of any other candidate, with Houston City Council member Letitia Plummer coming in third with only five votes.

Turner was Houston mayor from 2016 till January after serving as a member of the Texas House from 1989 to 2016. Notably, he won the endorsement of Jackson Lee’s children in his bid to succeed her and pitched his case to the party as the candidate most familiar with the projects in need of federal funding. One of Jackson Lee’s most valued assets was her ability to bring federal money to local priorities. Turner served on the House Appropriations Committee in the Texas Legislature.

As mayor of Texas’ biggest city, Turner oversaw the city’s response to several major disasters, including Hurricane Harvey, the COVID-19 pandemic and Winter Storm Uri. He worked with state and federal officials to secure extra funding for disaster response, including $50 million from Gov. Greg Abbott in 2017 in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Turner also pushed pension reform early in his tenure, lobbying for legislation through the Legislature in 2017.

In one of his closing acts as mayor, Turner lobbied the Republican National Committee to have its 2028 national convention in Houston. The city was officially selected for the convention last year — uncommonly early — after national delegates were “blown away” by the city’s presentation, then-RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said.

Among those in contention to replace Jackson Lee on the ballot, Turner was the oldest major contender at 69. Younger candidates, including Edwards, 42, asserted they were better equipped to build seniority in the U.S. House as Jackson Lee had done. First elected at age 45, Jackson Lee died at 74 as one of the two longest-serving Texans in Congress.

“It is time for people like Sylvester Turner to pass the baton and counsel the next generation of leaders to be able to to lead this district forward,” state Rep. Jarvis Johnson, who was running for the nomination, said in an interview last week.

Turner vowed to serve no more than two terms in Congress, saying he would be a transition candidate. Doing so would also allow a standard Democratic primary process — one with voter input — for the next candidate for the office when he retires. It would also prevent any incumbent from running with vast reserves of cash.

Edwards was an at-large member of the Houston City Council from 2016 to 2020, representing the entire city. She had prioritized protecting small businesses and workers’ rights, creating the Women and Minority-owned Business Task Force.

Edwards initially ran for mayor to replace Turner but dropped out of the race when Jackson Lee announced last year that she would run for the office. Edwards ran for Jackson Lee’s seat in Congress instead, but Jackson Lee lost the mayoral race to former state Sen. John Whitmire, setting her and Edwards up for a faceoff in the congressional Democratic primary.

Edwards also made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, running in the 2020 Democratic primary to challenge Sen. John Cornyn. Edwards came in fifth place behind M.J. Hegar.

The election Tuesday was held in a public meeting at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in the city’s Third Ward. Any candidate who got a nomination and a second by a committee member was subject to a vote to be made the party’s nominee.

Over a dozen candidates contacted party officials to express interest in a nomination. Seven participated in a public forum Saturday, including four current or former elected officials: Turner, Edwards, Johnson and state Rep. Christina Morales. Other candidates included Slater, Harris County Democratic Party staffer Corisha Rogers and Cortlan Wickliff, associate vice provost for academic affairs at Rice University.

Johnson dropped out of the running Tuesday night when it became clear that Edwards would be ahead of him. He asked his supporters to vote for Edwards.

Plummer was openly interested in the nomination but did not participate in the candidate forum. State law would require her to leave her current office to formally run for another office.

Turner appeared favored to win going into the party meeting Tuesday, boosted by the Jackson Lee family endorsement. Former Houston City Council Member Dwight Boykins dropped out of the running after the Jackson Lee family endorsed Turner.

Polling by Texas Victory Consulting had Turner at a slight lead among voters in the district at 34.2%. Edwards was in second at 32.8%. Johnson was in a distant third at 9%. The polling was among voters, not the 88 committee members eligible to make the selection.

Turner will face Republican Lana Centonze in the general election in November. That election is separate from the special election, also taking place on Nov. 5, to fill Jackson Lee’s seat for the remainder of her term, which ends in January. Jackson Lee’s daughter, Erica Lee Carter, said in a statement Monday that she was running for the seat in the special election.

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