Following the resignation of Democratic Congressman Filemon Vela Jr., Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced an emergency special election would be held on June 14 to fill the seat.
Abbott issued a statement indicating a special date for the election as well as other pertinent dates for candidates and voters. Anyone choosing to run for the seat must file their application by the close of business on April 13, with early voting set to begin on May 31.
Vela represented the state’s 34th Congressional District in South Texas and was elected to the seat in 2012 before being re-elected four more times.
Last Thursday, his resignation from Congress was read on the floor of the House of Representatives and became effective shortly before midnight that evening.
The following day, the Washington, D.C.-based law and lobbying firm Akin Gump announced that Vela had joined as a partner in public law and policy practice. Prior to being elected to Congress, Vela had worked as an attorney in private practice.
Before Vela’s abrupt departure, he was one of thirty-one Democratic House representatives who had indicated they would not be running for re-election. Current political projections suggest that Republicans are in a strong position to regain control of the House in this mid-term election.
Vela’s friend, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, currently represents Texas’ 15th district. Gonzalez has already won the Democratic primary in the 34th district; he announced that he would not run in the special election.
“I intend to represent present-day TX-15 until the end of my term but will support efforts to find a good Democrat to fill the seat in the interim in the event of a special election,” Gonzalez said. “I will be on the ballot for TX-34 in November.”
The person who wins the special election will only serve until January 2023, which is the end of the current term. The new term will be decided in November 2022.
It is unclear who will run as a Democrat in the special election. However, Vela indicated that former Cameron County Commissioner Dan Sanchez had reportedly given some thought to entering the race.
On the Republican side, the winner of the March Republican primary, Mayra Flores, will be running. Another GOP candidate will be Gregory Scott Kunkle, who garnered only 11% of the vote in that primary.
