Governor Greg Abbott on Friday called a special election to fill the seat of former U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee for the remainder of her term. The election will take place on Nov. 5, the same day as the general election.
The special election selects an official to represent Texas’s 18th congressional district for the two months remaining in Congress after the election.
The general election will determine who will represent the district for a full two-year term, beginning in 2025. Voters in the Houston area will decide both at the same time.
Early voting for both the special and general elections will begin simultaneously on October 21.
Jackson Lee died on July 19 while battling pancreatic cancer. She was 74. The Houston Democrat was one of the longest-serving members of Texas’s congressional delegation and known as a staunch progressive.
Because Jackson Lee won the Democratic primary in March, Democrats must select a new candidate to appear on the general election ballot. The 88 Democratic precinct chairmen in Jackson Lee’s district will vote on the replacement candidate on August 13.
[An “unrelenting” Sheila Jackson Lee remembered by Kamala Harris, former colleagues]
Candidates for the full-term nomination include former Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards, State Rep. Jarvis Johnson, D-Houston, Houston City Councilwoman Letitia Plummer and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
In the meantime, any eligible Texan can register with the secretary of state’s office through Aug. 22 to put their name on the special election ballot, except for the full-term candidate Democrats select in August and Lana Centonze, the Republican nominee for the seat. Those candidates cannot appear on the same ballot twice.
Harris County Democratic Chairman Mike Doyle called the special election “an attempt to sow confusion and create chaos in the November vote.”
Doyle said Abbott did not need to call a special election to fill the seat in two months, meaning voters would see two ballots for the same office.
“This is playing games, nothing more, nothing less,” he said.
Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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