Abbott Punishing His Own Constituents
to Boost GOP with CD 18 Election Date
UH Among Victims of CD 18 Vote Date
Capitol Inside
April 8, 2025
Governor Greg Abbott sparked a furor on Monday when he set a special congressional contest for November in a move that will disenfranchise almost 800,000 of his own constituents in the Houston area for the next seven months based on baseless claims about incompetent election officials there.
The Republican governor could have declared the opening in Congressional District 18 as an emergency for the sake of holding the special vote as soon as possible to ensure that all of the people that he represents have an equal voice in Washington D.C. for as much of 2025 as possible.
Democrat Sylvester Turner - a former Houston mayor who had a long and distinguished career in the Texas House - held the CD 18 seat for two months before he died unexpectedly on March 5. Abbott put off the setting of the election for Turner's replacement as long as he could before announcing a date for the vote on the same day as the general election this fall.
Abbott sought to justify the maneuvering on the grounds that Harris County wasn't prepared to conduct a special U.S. House election in a fair and effective manner.
The governor could have ordered the special CD 18 election to be held in June.
But the governor's insulting portrayal of election administrators in the largest county that he was elected to represent appeared to be a red herring based prevailing sentiment on both sides of the aisle that Abbott's true motivation for the CD 18 election timing is purely partisan. Abbott fancies himself as a presidential candidate in 2028 - and he may think he has a better chance to claim the GOP nomination if Democrats have one less vote in the U.S. House for several months this year.
With CD 18 and a Democratic seat in Arizona currently open, the Republicans have 220 U.S. House seats compared to 213 that Democrats control.
So the extended opening in the Houston district that's mostly Black and Hispanic wouldn't have any effect on the fate of President Donald Trump's agenda if the Republicans in Congress are united behind it.
But Abbott declined to acknowledge the partisan impact that the late CD 18 date could have when he portrayed the timing as an attempt to punish Harris County officials for the way they've handled elections in the past.
“No county in Texas does a worse job of conducting elections than Harris County," Abbott contended in an email. "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. The appropriate time to hold this election is November, which will give Harris County sufficient time to prepare for such an important election.”
The governor also failed to address the effect that the prolonged opening in the Texas congressional delegation will have by depriving hundreds of thousands of residents in his home state with a voice in the U.S. House through no fault of their own. The political gamesmanship could backfire on issues like federal emergency assistance during hurricanes when the delegation has incentive to be united.
While Abbott took an oath to protect the people of Texas, the setting of the CD 18 special election shows that he doesn't believe in treating them the same. Abbott called a special election for November in 2024 after Sheila Jackson Lee died in office in July as the CD 18 representative at the time. Turner, the Democratic nominee in the general election that year, chose not to run in the special election that Democrat Erica Lee Carter won when she beat two Republicans with 68 percent of the vote. Turner replaced her in January after a general election win with 69 percent.
The governor moved swiftly to fill a U.S. House opening in South Texas after Democrat Filemon Vela resigned on March 31 in 2022. Several days later, Abbott set a special election for June 14 in a move that made it possible for Republican Mayra Flores to win the Congressional District 34 seat and hold it for seven months before Democratic U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez ousted her in the 2022 general election with 53 percent of the vote.
But Abbott refused to admit that he was putting his political party first in the setting of the special CD 18 vote at the expense of hundreds of thousands of constituents he swore to protect. The CD 18 population was 43 percent Hispanic, 35 percent Black and 17 percent white when the district was redrawn in 2021.
more to come ...
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