Capitol Context: Abbott waited a record amount of time to fill Texas Congressman's seat, KXAN analysis shows
With the elections behind us, we’re shifting from providing you context from the campaign trail to context from the Texas State Capitol as the Texas legislature gets to work. Keep up with Capitol Context this legislative session as we examine bills being debated, the messages we’re hearing from elected leaders and how their votes impact us all.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Two months after Congressman Sylvester Turner’s death, Texas’s 18th Congressional District seat sits vacant. A KXAN data analysis found Rep. Turner’s seat will remain empty for a total of 244 days until an election scheduled by Gov. Greg Abbott takes place on Nov. 4. That’s longer than any other congressional or state legislative seat has sat vacant during Gov. Abbott’s 10 years as governor.
District 18 sits entirely in Harris County, a heavily Democratic-leaning area where a Democrat has filled the Representative’s seat for more than 50 years. The governor’s timeline in setting the special election date drew criticism from Democrats who felt he was playing politics by prolonging the process. Abbott’s decision to wait until November to hold an election for District 18 means a narrowly-divided Congress will be without a Democratic representative for eight months.
The governor said he chose to set the election for November to give Harris County sufficient time to prepare for an election saying, “no county in Texas does a worse job of conducting elections than Harris County.”
Digging into the data
To see how the Turner timeline compares, KXAN examined the more than 30 special elections Abbott has called to fill vacated congressional and state legislative seats since 2015.
We calculated two numbers: the length of time between a legislator’s departure from office — for example, because of a resignation or a death — until the day the governor set a special election date; and the length of time between a legislator’s departure and the date the election took place.
Abbott waited 33 days to set the special election date to fill Rep. Turner’s open seat. That’s the longest he’s ever waited to set a special election date for a vacated congressional or state legislative seat.
The 244 days between the day District 18’s seat was left open and the special election to fill that seat is longer than any other time frame under Abbott, the next closest being 190 days in 2018.
KXAN’s data analysis found three-quarters of special elections happened within 100 days of a seat becoming vacant, with the average time elapsed being roughly 91 days.
Vacant Texas seat’s impact on Congress
While Abbott said it was necessary to give Harris County election officials more time to run an election consistent with state law, Democrats expressed broad concern that the district will be left without a representative for most of 2025.
With Turner’s seat vacant, Republicans hold a slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives — 220 to 213. House Republicans can lose up to three votes and maintain a majority. If Turner’s seat is filled by a Democrat, Republicans only have a two-vote buffer.
Examining records from the Office of the Clerk in the U.S. House of Representatives, KXAN found there were 114 roll call votes this year by the morning of May 5. Fifty-seven of those votes have taken place since Rep. Turner’s death. Eight of those House votes have been decided by three or fewer votes.
KXAN will continue to report on the votes happening on the House floor in Congress, both before and after District 18’s Congressional seat is filled, and provide context as the legislative session continues.
