U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee announced on Sunday that she’s running to be Houston’s next mayor.
The Congresswoman has represented Houston, which is in the 18th Congressional District of Texas, since 1995 and is currently serving her fourteenth term as a member of the United States House of Representatives.
During a local church service, Jackson Lee announced to the congregation, “Sheila Jackson Lee 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.”
Jackson Lee has been outspoken about voting rights, particularly in light of Republican disenfranchisement efforts.
“Voting rights…is not just to go and vote but to empower and to make that birthright given to you by the 15th Amendment,” she said in a June 2021 protest at the Capitol. “The 13th Amendment said no more slaves in America. Tragically, the journey has not ended, to end that stigma. The 14th Amendment said that due process is owed you. And that you had freedom…So the 15th Amendment says the right of citizens to vote shall not be abridged.”
Lee, the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, earned a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School.
“I hope I’ve been a humble servant for you for 28 years,” Jackson Lee told the church audience on Sunday.