{"id":16351,"date":"2025-10-22T21:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T21:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/16351\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T21:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T21:18:07","slug":"in-texas-special-election-democrats-try-to-beat-opponents-and-voter-confusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/16351\/","title":{"rendered":"In Texas special election, Democrats try to beat opponents \u2013 and voter confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Next month\u2019s special election in a heavily Democratic House district in Houston includes more than a dozen candidates vying to succeed the late Rep. Sylvester Turner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet the crowded field of contenders shares a common opponent: voter confusion.<\/p>\n

Responding to pressure from President Donald Trump to bolster the GOP\u2019s chances of maintaining its narrow House majority, Texas Republicans redrew the state\u2019s congressional map this summer. The new lines are subject to a lawsuit, but if they hold, residents from Dallas to South Texas will find themselves in new districts in time for next year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

For voters in the 18th District, the uncertainty is playing out right now. The nonpartisan primary to fill the remainder of Turner\u2019s term will be held on Nov. 4 under the current district map. If no one receives a majority of the vote, the top two contenders will compete in a runoff election, most likely in February.<\/p>\n

Then the following month, voters will go to the polls again to select candidates for the November 2026 ballot, this time under the new district lines.<\/p>\n

The GOP-led redistricting push<\/a> introduced another wrinkle: Whoever wins the race to serve out Turner\u2019s term could find themselves facing Democratic Rep. Al Green in the March primary. Green, whose 9th District was redrawn as a safe Republican seat, has signaled he\u2019s considering a run in the redrawn 18th, which will subsume much of his current district.<\/p>\n

The pileup of candidates and the uncertainty created by the new district lines are all contributing to the chaos in what is likely to be a low-turnout special election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know from political science research that a confused voter is a nonvoter,\u2019\u2019 said\u00a0Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston. \u201cIf we get above 10 percent [voter participation], I\u2019d be pretty surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n

A long vacancy<\/p>\n

Besides confronting voter confusion, many local Democrats are angry that the seat has been vacant for so long. Turner, a former Houston mayor, was less than two months into his term when he died in March. The seat had also been vacant for several months last year following the death <\/a>of longtime Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Texas Rep. Sylvester Turner, right, died in March after less than two months in office. (Bill Clark\/CQ Roll Call file photo)<\/p>\n

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, blamed Harris County election officials when he set the November special election date<\/a>, saying they needed time to prepare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo county in Texas does a worse job of conducting elections than Harris County,\u201d Abbott said in April. \u201cForcing Harris County to rush this special election on weeks\u2019 notice would harm the interests of voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several of the Democratic candidates reject his rationale.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know the phrase \u2018No taxation without representation\u2019? Well, apparently, that doesn\u2019t apply to the 18th Congressional District,\u2019\u2019 said Amanda Edwards, a former Houston City Council member who lost to Jackson Lee in a primary last year. \u201cThen they put this district on the chopping block when it had no voting member, and they sliced it and diced it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another hopeful, acting Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, called Abbott\u2019s decision \u201creprehensible\u201d and said the delay was driven by a desire \u201cto ensure that the Republicans could keep their slim margin in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Oct. 7-11 poll<\/a> conducted by the University of Houston\u2019s Hobby School of Public Affairs found Menefee and Edwards as the front-runners in the race, with 27 percent and 23 percent, respectively.\u00a0Democratic state Rep. Jolanda Jones trailed with 15 percent, while Republican businesswoman Carmen Maria Montiel, a former television journalist who lost to Jackson Lee in 2022, had 6 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Democrats are heavily favored to hold the district, which Trump lost by nearly 40 points, according to calculations by The Downballot<\/a>. Early voting in the election began Monday.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a base turnout election, so if you can convince the base that you care about these core issues, then you\u2019re going to have an advantage,\u201d Rottinghaus said.<\/p>\n

Another candidate, 27-year-old Isaiah Martin, is aiming to be the first Gen Z member of the House from Texas. The former Jackson Lee staffer has cast himself as an outsider whose skilled use of TikTok has drawn him thousands of followers.<\/p>\n

Rottinghaus said Martin could gain traction as a debate over age continues to roil Democratic politics. \u201cHe\u2019s on the progressive vanguard,\u2019\u2019 Rottinghaus said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a challenge, because \u2026 young people don\u2019t vote in as big numbers as older voters, so his constituency may be harder to come by in a tight race like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meet the candidates<\/p>\n

The 18th District has a storied legacy and was held by a number of prominent Black leaders with national profiles, including Jackson Lee, anti-hunger activist Mickey Leland and Barbara Jordan, who made history in 1972 when she became the first Black woman from the South elected to the House.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Menefee has landed several key endorsements from prominent Texas Democrats, including former Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke and two Senate hopefuls, former Rep. Colin Allred and state Rep. James Talarico. He also has the backing of the Houston Chronicle editorial board<\/a>; Leaders We Deserve, a PAC that promotes generational change in politics; and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, an up-and-coming progressive with a national platform. Local supporters include Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Erica Lee Carter, Jackson Lee\u2019s daughter who briefly held the seat after winning a special election to succeed her mother last year.<\/p>\n

\"\"Menefee has the backing of Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett. (Courtesy Christian D. Menefee for Congress)<\/p>\n

Menefee, 37, said his background as Harris County\u2019s top civil attorney \u2014 a role that has seen him take on several state GOP officials in court \u2014 makes him the right person to challenge Republicans in Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are crying out for leadership,\u2019\u2019 he said, \u201cThey\u2019re crying out for folks to hold the line and to stand up to Donald Trump.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Edwards has the support of EMILY\u2019s List, which backs Democratic women who support abortion rights; the gun violence prevention group Moms Demand Action; businesswoman Tina Knowles, the mother of music superstar Beyonc\u00e9; Leland\u2019s widow, Alison Leland; and several House Democrats, including California\u2019s Lateefah Simon and Virginia\u2019s Jennifer McClellan.<\/p>\n

Edwards is seeking the 18th District seat for the second straight cycle. She ended a mayoral bid in 2023 after Jackson Lee entered the race and switched to the House contest. But after losing the mayor\u2019s race, Jackson Lee decided to seek reelection to her seat and went on to defeat Edwards, her onetime intern, in a March 2024 primary. Then, after Jackson Lee died before the general election, Edwards tried again, but local party officials narrowly picked Turner over her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy commitment to the district remains unchanged,\u2019\u2019 Edwards said. \u201cAnd people like that I never went away. They like that I\u2019ve been tested. Some of the most legendary folks \u2026 are the people who don\u2019t take no for an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards, who founded a nonprofit agency that helps small-business owners, is also emphasizing generational change. The 43-year-old said fresh voices are needed to fight Republican efforts to cut funding for health care and education.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones, an attorney and former member of the Houston City Council and local school board, has carved out a progressive lane since her election to the Texas House in 2022. A strong supporter of abortion access and a criminal justice overhaul, she was among a group of Democratic lawmakers who left the state over the summer in an effort to block the GOP\u2019s mid-decade redistricting plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will not use my Black body to get the quorum that they need in order to steal two Black seats in Texas,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI became the face of the quorum because I dared to tell the truth that those maps were racist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones, 59, has the backing of nine of her Democratic legislative colleagues, in addition to former Rep. Craig Washington, who held the 18th District seat before Jackson Lee. She\u2019s also been endorsed by New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman and the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund. (If she wins, Jones would be the first out Black lesbian elected to the House.)<\/p>\n

Her fundraising has lagged behind that of Menefee and Edwards, who launched campaigns well before Jones entered the race in June after the close of the legislative session. Pre-general election fundraising reports are due with the Federal Election Commission before 12:01 a.m. Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones, though, said she\u2019s used to being underestimated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a history, and I think there\u2019s a history around the U.S., where people who have grassroots work beat people who have the establishment\u2019s support all day, every day,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Next month\u2019s special election in a heavily Democratic House district in Houston includes more than a dozen candidates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10737,4970,13075,11346,13076,13077,910,5353,10738,2671,631,2133,7810,145,163,409,288,10740,13078,584,1562,2244,2419,10741,1932,1910,4491,9835,287,7398,1968,2424,2220,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-16351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-10737","tag-abortion","tag-agency","tag-al-green","tag-bonnie-watson-coleman","tag-brand-safety","tag-business","tag-campaign-finance","tag-campaigns","tag-congress","tag-death","tag-democrats","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-donald-trump","tag-education","tag-election","tag-elections","tag-executive-branch","tag-federal-election-commission","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-history","tag-house","tag-lawsuit","tag-leadership","tag-national","tag-new-jersey","tag-politics","tag-polling","tag-religion","tag-republicans","tag-science","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}