Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is the Democratic choice for Jackson Lee’s congressional seat

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WASHINGTON — Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is on a slide to become Houston’s next congressman after Harris County Democrats chose him Tuesday to be the Democratic nominee for the seat vacated by the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.

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

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 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. She had won the Democratic primary for the seat in March against Edwards.

Edwards put his name back in the ring for the party’s nomination after the death of Jackson Lee. 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 just 2.7 percent of the vote in the primary. Jackson Lee scored 60% while Edwards scored 37.3%.

Turner and Edwards each fell short of a majority of the vote in Tuesday’s first round of voting, putting the two in a runoff that took place immediately after the first round. Turner initially received 35 votes and Edwards received 34. They were far ahead of any other candidate, with Houston City Councilwoman Letitia Plummer coming in third by just five votes.

Turner served as mayor of Houston from 2016 to January after serving as a member of the Texas House from 1989 to 2016. In particular, he won the support of Jackson Lee’s children in his bid to succeed her and made his party’s case as the best-known candidate. with projects that need federal funding. One of Jackson Lee’s most prized 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’ largest 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 additional funding for disaster response, including $50 million from Gov. Greg Abbott in 2017 in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Turner also pushed for pension reform early in his tenure, lobbying for legislation through the Legislature in 2017.

In one of his final acts as mayor, Turner lobbied the Republican National Committee to hold the 2028 national convention in Houston. The city was officially selected for last year’s convention — unusually early — after national delegates were “blown away” by the city’s pitch, 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, have said they are better equipped to build on their seniority in the US House, as Jackson Lee had done. First elected at age 45, Jackson Lee died at age 74, one of the longest-serving Texans in Congress.

“It’s time for people like Sylvester Turner to step up and mentor the next generation of leaders to lead this district forward,” state Rep. Jarvis Johnson, who is running for the nomination, said in an interview last week. .

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

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

Edwards originally ran for mayor to replace Turner, but dropped out of the race when Jackson Lee announced last year that he would run for the position. Edwards instead ran for Jackson Lee’s congressional seat, but Jackson Lee lost the mayoral race to former state senator John Whitmire, setting her and Edwards up for a showdown in the Democratic congressional primary.

Edwards also made an unsuccessful bid for the US Senate, running in the 2020 Democratic primary to challenge Senator John Cornyn. Edwards finished fifth behind MJ Hegar.

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

More than a dozen candidates have contacted party officials to express interest in a nomination. Seven attended a public forum Saturday, including four current or former elected officials: Turner, Edwards, Johnson and state Rep. Christina Morales. Other candidates were 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 attend the candidate forum. State law would require her to leave her current office to formally run for another position.

Turner appeared favored to win at Tuesday’s caucus, buoyed by support from the Jackson Lee family. Former Houston City Councilman Dwight Boykins dropped out of the race after the Jackson Lee family endorsed Turner.

Polls conducted by Texas Victory Consulting had Turner slightly ahead among voters in the district at 34.2 percent. Edwards was second with 32.8%. Johnson was a distant third at 9 percent. The poll was among voters, not the 88 committee members eligible to make the selection.

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

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