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Like other Texans, I watched in dismay as US House Republicans squeaked through their reckless, sweeping federal budget bill by just one vote. That concern has only grown as President Donald Trump signed the bill, and its devastating provisions, into law.
Its slash-and-burn cuts to Medicaid, senseless restrictions on food assistance programs, and permanent tax breaks for the wealthy are, surprisingly, not the only source of my anger. As a 40-year resident of Houston, I’m more enraged that our district’s needs and demands were cut from the conversation.
As House Republicans worked overtime to push this bill through by a singular vote the first time, the seat for my district –Texas’ 18–sat empty.That’s thanks to two anti-democratic systems built into our state laws: a nominee selection process that throws voters to the sideline and a governor who has purposefully delayed our special election for months.
When Houston’s Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee passed away after winning the Democratic primary election in 2024, it should have been up to us, the voters who make up her district, to nominate her successor. Instead, Texas state law required the chairs of 80 precincts to decide for us. They chose former Democratic mayor of Houston Sylvester Turner over Amanda Edwards, a native Houstonian, attorney and former city council member, by four votes. This was despite the fact that Edwards took home thousands of votes in the primary against Jackson Lee, and could very well have been the nominee that constituents selected.
After Turner’s death in March 2025, Governor Abbott took full advantage of yet another indiscretion in Texas state law: one that gave him complete power over whether, and when, to call a special election for his replacement. It’s no surprise that he chose Nov. 4, 2025 in a calculated move to keep a solid Democratic seat in Congress unfilled for as long as possible.
And that empty seat has already come with a clear and devastating cost; starting with the razor-thin passage of the budget bill, which will devastate working families across Texas.
I understand this bill will cost millions of people their health insurance, which will escalate the burden on taxpayer-funded county hospital systems, increase prices, and compound the national debt, while still reducing the quality of governmental services.
The repercussions will stretch far beyond people like me. Texas is already the most uninsured state in the United States, and this bill would strip away critical health insurance from millions more of our friends, family members, and neighbors. It will efficiently eliminate jobs and hike up household costs across our state.
These realities going unrepresented and unheard in Congress is an injustice to Texans – and a glaring failure of our state’s laws.
With thousands of working families facing imminent threats to their livelihoods, the need for a fair, democratic process is more urgent than ever. We need to amend the election code to provide for a special election to be held within 60 days of a vacancy in Congress to select a replacement.
Because Texans can’t afford to let anti-democratic maneuvers like these let our voices be silenced in the most important halls of Washington. And we deserve a system that reflects the will and the needs of our communities, not backroom politics.
