WASHINGTON — Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday said he had selected Nov. 4 as the date for the special election to fill the House seat that had been occupied by the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Texas, who died unexpectedly in March.
The decision means the deep-blue, Houston-based congressional seat will be vacant for roughly eight months.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and other Democrats had accused Abbott of deliberately delaying calling the special election to help pad the GOP's tiny majority in the chamber. Republicans hold just a 220-213 advantage over Democrats in the House, meaning that Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., can only afford three GOP defections on any vote.
But in a statement Monday, Abbott pointed the finger at Harris County, saying that officials there do a poor job in conducting elections.
“They repeatedly fail to conduct elections consistent with state law. Safe and secure elections are critical to the foundation of our state. Forcing Harris County to rush this special election on weeks’ notice would harm the interests of voters,” Abbott said. “The appropriate time to hold this election is November, which will give Harris County sufficient time to prepare for such an important election.”
Abbott's announcement Monday came just hours after Jeffries held a news conference in the U.S. Capitol in which he criticized Abbott for "conspiring" with congressional Republicans to delay the special election. The district’s roughly 800,000 constituents are predominantly Black and Hispanic.
"The Republicans are on the run on the economy, they’re on the run on health care, they’re on the run in the courts, they’re on the run electorally, and they’re on the run legislatively," Jeffries told reporters, "which is why Gov. Abbott is conspiring with House Republicans to rig the system and not call a special election."
Last week, Jeffries said it was "very likely" Democrats would move to sue Abbott if he did not call a special election soon.
Texas law doesn’t appear to include a deadline for the governor to call a special election after a vacancy opens up. Special elections typically take place alongside already-scheduled elections in Texas, unless the governor deems it an emergency.
In this case, Abbott determined the special election for Turner's seat would be held during the next regularly scheduled election day in November.
The Turner seat will remain open for longer than other recent House vacancies in Texas. After Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas, resigned on March 31, 2022, Abbott called an emergency special election for June 14 days later.
And on July 19, after Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, who represented the same 18th Congressional District seat in Houston as Turner, died in office, Abbott on Aug. 2 set a special election for Nov. 5 of that year.
Christian Menefee, a Harris County attorney and Democrat who plans to run for the seat this year, had pushed for Abbott to immediately call a June special election.
“It is unconscionable to leave nearly 800,000 people in this district without representation in Congress for most of the year,” Menefee said in a statement Monday. “We’ll go through hurricane season, budget battles, and attacks on Social Security and Medicaid with no one at the table fighting for us. Governor Abbott knows how to move quickly—he’s done it for other districts. He just chose not to for us.”
Turner, the former mayor of Houston, died on March 5, shortly after attending President Donald Trump's joint address to Congress. He was 70 years old.
