U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee has announced that she is running for mayor of Houston.
In a livestream from City Cathedral Church, Jackson Lee said she “wants to come home to be your mayor, for the city of Houston.”
“I will not be able to do it without each and every one of you,” she told the congregation.
Sylvester Turner, the current Houston mayor, will reach his term limit this year, and voters will elect a new mayor of the city on November 7.
Having just announced her candidacy, Jackson Lee is now viewed by some as a frontrunner in the race.
The field includes Texas Senator John Whitmire; former Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins; former Houston City Council Member Amanda Edwards; attorney Lee Kaplan; current Houston Council Member Robert Gallegos, and former Houston Metro Chair Gilbert Garcia.
While municipal elections are nonpartisan in Texas, all seven of these candidates hail from the Democrat Party, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Political science professor Mark Jones of Rice University told Fox 26 that he thinks Jackson Lee has a rough road ahead of her.
“She has high negatives among a significant share of the population, which means they’re going to vote for anyone other than Sheila Jackson Lee,” he explained.
However, he added that despite the negatives, she will likely still rank at the top of the voting.
“Her entering the race put her likely in the top two, which are those who will go to the runoff,” Jones said. “I suspect some of them [the candidates] are going to reconsider their position over the next few months.”
Jones is unsure, however, if Jackson Lee can claim victory over Texas Senator John Whitmire.
“Whitmire has done an excellent job of stabilizing the center right and center of the political spectrum,” he said.
“In part from her progressive stances on many issues, and in part from some of the personality conflicts and incidents that have occurred with her and staffers and others, and the overall perception as someone who cannot be especially nice at some times,” he said.
Jackson Lee recently filed a bill in Congress to make social media posts that allegedly inspire white supremacy-related hate crimes illegal, as reported by The Dallas Express.
The Dallas Express reached out to Jackson Lee’s office for additional comment but received no response by press time.