The race to fill late Rep. Sylvester Turner’s (D-TX) House seat is shaping up to be a competitive one, with two Democrats already throwing their hats in even though the date of the special election has yet to be called.
Turner, who survived a battle with bone cancer in 2022, died earlier this month at age 70. The freshman Texas Democrat filled the seat of longtime House Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee, who died last summer from pancreatic cancer.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has not announced when the special election to fill Turner’s seat will be. However, Texas’s 18th Congressional District is a safe seat for Democrats, as Turner won 70% of the vote after he ran an 83-day campaign.
Just hours after Turner’s funeral on Saturday, Harris County, Texas, Attorney Christian Menefee’s campaign filing went public on the Federal Election Commission’s website. Menefee, Harris County’s first African American attorney, announced his candidacy on Monday on his social media.
Menefee received the endorsement of Jackson Lee’s daughter, Erica Lee Carter, who filled her mother’s seat from Nov. 5, 2024, to Jan. 3, 2025.
Menefee is not the only one who announced his candidacy on Monday. Isaiah Martin, a 26-year-old political influencer, also announced his candidacy to his over a quarter million social media followers.
The Houston native mounted two campaigns for local and congressional offices. He ran for Houston’s City Council and for Jackson Lee’s seat during her bid to become Houston’s first female black mayor in 2023. During his congressional run, Martin raised around $400,000 in funding and still holds a little more than $174,00 in his war chest.
If Martin’s campaign is successful, he will become the youngest member of Congress behind Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), who recently turned 28 years old.
“So now’s the time to be bold and fight fire with fire,” Martin said. “You see, I believe in a Democratic party that has a spine, a party that stands for something, a party that fights back.”
Olivia Julianna, a political influencer and Democratic consultant, will join Martin’s team as his digital partnerships coordinator. Julianna has over a million followers collectively on her social media platforms, which allows the campaign to reach people all over the country.
Amanda Edwards is another possible contender but has not announced her candidacy yet. A native Houstonian and lawyer, she was an at-large Houston City Council member. She ran against Jackson Lee in a tough primary early last year, but Jackson Lee came out on top.
Texas state law requires Abbott to schedule the special election within about two months after he calls it if it is held as an emergency election. However, there is no set deadline for when the governor has to make the initial announcement.
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Last year, after Jackson Lee’s passing, Abbott did not call an emergency special election and just held the race on the same day as the general election. If he were to do this again, the next regularly scheduled election would be on the first Saturday in May.
“An announcement on a special election will be made at a later date,” said Abbott’s press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris.
