(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Two Democrats, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and State Sen. Jason Whitmire, are heading for a runoff election for the mayoral seat of Houston, Texas.
In a field of 18 total candidates, neither Jackson Lee nor Whitmire was unable to garner enough votes surpass the 50% threshold and avoid a runoff, according to NBC News.
However, Whitmire did beat out Jackson Lee with 42.5%, while the notorious congresswoman trailed behind at 35.6%.
Jackson Lee, a longtime representative, announced her bid for the mayoral office in March.
“I started this journey around the issue of people—making sure that whatever I said was to make Houston a liveable city, and to make Houston a city that responded to the needs of families and our children,” Jackson Lee said at a rally on Tuesday.
“I hope that however the outcome is, it will reflect the people bought into a positive agenda that will take this city into the future and that future will be something for everyone,” she added.
However, she personally is known more for her volatility than her positivity—including a recent report, based on leaked audio, that she had berated a staffer in a profanity-laden diatribe.
Leaked audio obtained by @CurrentRevolt shows Democrat Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee berating a staffer: "F**king idiots serve no goddamn purpose … Nobody gives a shit about what you're doing and you ain't doing shit!"
(WARNING: Explicit language) pic.twitter.com/Lzl4AmKhkS
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 21, 2023
Despite claiming to be a voice for oppressed minorities, Jackson Lee also has shown no qualms about exercising her own privilege.
She drew headlines in 2017 for forcing an airline to give her a first-class seat that she had not paid for, leaving another passenger seatless.
She then deflected blame onto the irate passenger.
“Since this was not any fault of mine, the way the individual continued to act appeared to be, upon reflection, because I was an African American woman, seemingly an easy target along with the African American flight attendant who was very, very nice,” Lee wrote on Facebook.
Historically, the representative radically tackled the wokest of issues.
The White Supremacy Act of 2023 promised to “prevent and prosecute white supremacy inspired hate crime and conspiracy to commit white supremacy inspired hate crime.”
The bill also promised to make political criticism of minorities by white people a federal crime.
Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee just introduced a bill that would make it a federal crime for White people, and White people only, to criticize mass immigration or to say anything that she claims would vilify "a non-White person or group." pic.twitter.com/WihNgX2ylL
— National Conservative (@NatCon2022) January 14, 2023
She also advocated for reparations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Houston race focused on the crime rate, a possible budget crisis and local trash pickup.
The runoff is slated to take place on Dec. 9.
Jackson will not have to vacate her congressional seat unless she wins the mayoral bid in the next election.
However, her struggles in the recent race may portend a growing vulnerability that could draw more challengers to seek out the seat in a district she has lorded over since 1995.
Already for the Democratic primary there are four other declared candidates—a stark contrast from the 2022 race, when she ran uncontested for the party’s nomination.
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
