In the heart of Houston and its surrounding areas, the residents of Texas’ 18th Congressional District had long counted on one person to fight for them in Washington.
Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee represented the district for more than 30 years and set a precedent as a strong voice for Black Americans and someone intimately involved in the community and its issues.
It’s a stark change from what the district has in representation now: No one.
Jackson Lee’s death in July 2024 set off a saga that’s left roughly 800,000 people without a consistent voice in the US House ever since. The story involves different tides of national politics crashing into each other: the long-running Democratic debate over the age and health of the party’s officeholders, the Republican imperative to protect a razor-thin House majority and a redistricting fight that’s pitting candidates of the same party against each other.
By the time of a January 31 runoff election to fill the seat, the district will have been without a representative for 13 of the preceding 18 months. And the winner of that runoff could lose in a primary five weeks later.
“The congressional 18th is being used like a pawn in a game,” said Joetta Stevenson, the president of the Greater Fifth Ward super neighborhood.
“We are historically an African American community. We have a huge population of Hispanics in this community. We have people in need, and without the federal representation, we are all going to suffer because of that,” Stevenson said.
One by one, important votes i
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