AUSTIN (Nexstar) — At the tail end of a 30-minute press conference on Wednesday, U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies, D-New York, told reporters the House Democrats would likely sue Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over not holding a special election for House District 18.
The district was represented by former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner until his death on March 5. Turner’s death and the death of his Democratic colleague Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Arizona, turned the U.S. House from a three-seat Republican majority to a five-seat majority. In addition, Republican replacements for former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, and former Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Florida, were elected on Tuesday and will increase the Republican majority to seven seats once the pair is sworn in.
Jefferies was responding to a question about his recent comments to The New York Times about the slow nature of Turner’s replacement.
“Do you believe that Gov. Abbott is deliberately deciding to not call a special election to fill that seat,” the reporter asked. “If so, are the House Democrats planning any sort of litigation?”
“Yes — and very likely yes,” Jefferies replied before thanking the media and leaving the podium.
Abbott not only has the sole power to call for a special election, but has no formal deadline to schedule one. When former U.S. Rep. Shelia Lee Jackson died in office last year, Abbott announced a special election two weeks later. As of Wednesday, Turner’s seat has been vacant for more than four weeks.
On Tuesday, the new head of the Texas Democratic Party Kendall Scudder weighed in.
“It’s pretty outrageous,” Scudder told KXAN. “There is an entire congressional district in the state that is primarily Black and brown folks who are being denied representation in the United States Congress, and the only reason they’re doing it is because our governor is playing politics instead of making sure that he’s looking out for the people of Texas.”
Abbott missed the state’s deadline for hosting the special election during the May 3 election. The next formal election in Texas is Nov. 4.
“I don’t know if he’s just being lazy. I don’t understand why he wouldn’t have called it,” Scudder said. “He’s choosing instead to put this off, now the people in that district won’t be able to have the election until November. It’s 10 months that these people are going to go without representation in the United States Congress. Taxation without representation.”
Christian D. Menefee, a Harris County attorney who’s planning to run for the seat, took to X on Wednesday to support Jefferies’ statement.
“This is what Democrats are asking for—a fight,” he posted. “Nearly 800,000 Houstonians are without a voice in Congress. Abbott has called emergency elections before—he just doesn’t want to do it here. Why? Because Trump and Elon are pulling his strings to keep control of Congress. That’s not leadership. That’s voter suppression.”
Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but told NBC News on Wednesday, “an announcement on a special election will be made at a later date.”
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