HOUSTON (AP) — The daughter of the late U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who died last month after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, will seek to complete her mother’s term.
Erica Lee Carter filed papers by Thursday’s deadline to run in a special election in which voters will choose who will complete Jackson Lee’s two-year term representing Houston’s congressional district. Carter, like her mother, is running as a Democrat.
Paperwork filed with the Texas Secretary of State’s office shows that in addition to Carter, two Republican candidates are also vying to finish out Jackson Lee’s term. The district is solidly Democratic.
The special election is scheduled for Nov. 5, the same day voters will decide who will succeed Jackson Lee and serve the district for the next two years. Earlier this month, former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner was chosen by local Democratic precinct chairmen as the party’s nominee. Jackson Lee had already won the Democratic nomination for what would have been a 16th term before her death on July 19.
If Carter wins the special election, she will remain in office until the next Congress begins work in January.
“I will fight with her passion and ferocity for the people of the 18th to regain their representation in the fight for justice, equality, health care, human rights, and economic opportunity for all. We will do this together!” Carter said in a statement announcing her candidacy this month.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Bill Clinton were among those who paid tribute to Jackson Lee at her funeral earlier this month. She was 74.
