94

The number of voters who will nominate a new state senator for a four-year term when they meet on July 16

Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) has abandoned his re-election bid to run for Harris Co. Commissioner. Ellis was selected by eligible Democratic precinct chairs to replace the late El Franco Lee, who was running unopposed for re-election when he passed away. Now, another group of Democratic precinct chairs will select a replacement for Ellis’s senate seat.

Reps. Borris Miles (D-Houston) and Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) and former Houston city council member and City Controller Ron Green are the announced candidates. Portions of Miles and Thompson’s districts lie within SD13, as does most of Green’s former city council district. Green has also successfully run countywide.

There are 223 voting precincts in SD13 (186 in Harris Co. and 37 in Fort Bend Co.). The majority of those precincts, representing about 40% of the primary voters in SD13, lack Democratic precinct chairs and will not factor into the election to replace Ellis.

The graph at right shows the distribution of precinct chairs by House district. Miles’s district produces the single largest voting bloc. Collectively, they half the votes needed to become the new senator. Thompson’s district represents the fifth largest voting bloc.

However, Thompson has been endorsed by Reps. Alma Allen, Garnet Coleman, Harold Dutton, Ron Reynolds, Hubert Vo and Gene Wu (among others). If all of their precinct chairs were to vote for Thompson, she would have 71 votes, which would be more than enough to win the nomination.