Democratic precinct chairs residing within SD13 will select a replacement nominee at a Saturday meeting at the CWA Hall in Houston. The meeting of 94 (or so) precinct chairs is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Four candidates have been confirmed as seeking the nomination:
- Ron Green, former Houston council member and City Controller
- James Joseph, a Houston community activist who lost a 2013 race for Houston city council
- Rep. Borris Miles (D-Houston); and
- Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston).
A potential fifth candidate, Houston Democratic activist Jonaphan Roberts, may also be seeking the nomination.
Rep. Borris
MIles
Rep. Senfronia Thompson
Miles has been endorsed by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, former Houston Mayor Annise Parker and the Across the Track PAC. He has touted the support of Sen. John Whitmire, Rep. Jarvis Johnson (D-Houston) and Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston). The latter is also listed as one of Thompson’s endorsers.
Thompson has been endorsed by nine House colleagues*, U.S. Reps. Al Green (D-Houston) and Gene Green (D-Houston), Fort Bend Co. Comm. Grady Presage, Sunnyside Mayor Sandra Massy Hines, the Texas AFL-CIO, labor leaders Zeph Capo and Claude Cummings, Annie’s List, the Latino Leadership Council and the Houston Chronicle. Update: She announced the endorsement of AFSCME after we published this report.
As far as we can tell, the other candidates have not received or released endorsements publicly.
The chosen nominee will replace Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) on the ballot. Ellis abandoned his re-election bid to become the replacement nominee for Harris Co. Commissioner, succeeding the late El Franco Lee, who was running un-opposed for re-election. Ellis, Miles and Thompson all were unopposed in their primary races, and Miles and Thompson are unopposed in the general election. If either is selected to replace Ellis, another meeting of Democratic precinct chairs will be called to choose a new nominee for the impacted House seat.
* We originally reported eight. The nine listed by the Thompson campaign are Reps. Alma Allen, Garnet Coleman, Harold Dutton, Jessica Farrar, Ana Hernandez, Ron Reynolds, Hubert Vo, Armando Walle and Gene Wu
