Houston's 18th District Left Without Representation as Redistricting Sparks Outrage

U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner's death in March came just eight days before that of his fellow Democrat in Congress, U.S. Rep Raúl Grijalva.

Yet Arizona is far closer to replacing Grijalva than Texas is to replacing Turner. Houston’s 18th Congressional District won’t have a representative until November.

Arizona on Tuesday held primary elections to see who would face off in a September special election to give that part of Arizona a vote in Congress once again.

Gov. Greg Abbott has taken a very different approach to filling the vacancy left by Turner. Rather than hold a special election early to make sure voters in the 18th Congressional District had a representative — and a vote in Congress — he opted to set the special election for November.

The move ultimately gave Republicans in the U.S. House one less Democratic vote to worry about while President Donald Trump wrangled with Republicans to pass his big spending and tax cut package earlier this month.

Houston Democrats have already been upset with Abbott over the decision to delay the special election in a district where Black and Hispanic residents make up the majority. But their outrage has been exacerbated this month with Abbott agreeing to carry out Trump's push for state lawmakers to redraw the very congressional district he has left vacant for so long.

Specifically, Abbott has pointed to four congressional districts as justification for the surprise redistricting effort during a special session starting on July 21. Three of those districts are in Houston, including the 18th.

“Simply put, this is outrageous,” said former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards, who is one of the Democrats trying to run for Turner's old seat.

How Republicans will try to draw the districts is still to be determined. But there’s a real possibility they could use the vacancy to put portions of Turner’s district into nearby districts held by U.S. Reps Sylvia Garcia, Al Green and Lizzie Fletcher -- all Democrats -- in hopes of creating another Republican-leaning district elsewhere within Harris County.

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, another Democrat running to replace Turner, is angry that Abbott and Trump would use Turner’s death for political gain.

“If Republican officials in Austin want to try to erase the seat of Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland and Sheila Jackson Lee, I don’t think the community’s going to stand for that,” he said, referring to Turner's predecessors.

Even though Democrats are in the minority in the Texas Legislature, party leaders are meeting behind the scenes to build a strategy to fight the redrawing both in Austin and potentially in the courts.