Sheila Jackson Lee loses Houston mayor’s race to tough-on-crime state senator Politico by Andrew Zhang 12/10/2023
The showdown illuminates the faultlines within the Democratic Party over how to deal with crime on a local level.Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire defeated Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in the Houston mayoral race in Saturday’s runoff election after a campaign heavily focused on voter concerns over safety on the streets.
Whitmire, a perennial tough-on-crime voice who for decades heralded Texas regulations over public safety, was declared the winner by the Associated Press with 57 percent reporting. At that point, Whitmire was leading by an almost 2-to-1 margin.
Whitmire leaned on a coalition of moderate Democrats, independents and conservative voters, with a prominent campaign promise to make the city safer with increased policing.
First elected to the state Legislature as a college student in 1973, Whitmire ran a campaign that hewed closely to concerns of local voters: crime, infrastructure issues and city financial controls. In comparison, the 15-term member of Congress Jackson Lee talked about tackling public safety but also elevated concerns about women’s access to abortion and cast her opponent as a Trump-style Republican.
Along the way, she notched endorsements from big national names such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Hakeem Jeffries, as well as term-limited incumbent mayor Sylvester Turner.
“She has been a champion for as long as I’ve known her, as long as she’s represented many of you in Congress,” Hillary Clinton said at a rally for Jackson Lee at the end of October. “We need her leadership, her advocacy, her grit, to get stuff done for the people of Houston.”
But even with big-name Democrats behind her, Jackson Lee ultimately couldn’t make up her deficit.
Her campaign became mired in scandal after an expletive-filled rant, allegedly of Jackson Lee berating staffers, leaked online in October, for which she expressed regret in a statement.
If Jackson Lee intends to run for another House term, she doesn’t have long to declare her intentions: The filing deadline is Monday evening.More:
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/09/john-whitmire-sheila-jackson-lee-houston-mayor-00130873