Congressman and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner dies

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U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner, a former Houston mayor, state legislator and institution in Houston Democratic politics, died early Wednesday morning. He was 70.

Turner's death comes two months into his first term representing Texas’ 18th Congressional District, the seat long occupied by his political ally, former U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who also died in office last year amid a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Turner said in 2022 that he had secretly been recovering from bone cancer. Last summer, as he was seeking the nomination for Jackson Lee's seat, Turner said he was cancer-free.

In a statement, Turner's family said he was taken to the hospital Tuesday night after attending President Donald Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C. Turner was released from the hospital and later died at his home at about 5:45 a.m. Wednesday from "enduring health complications," according to the statement.

Before joining Congress, Turner served as Houston mayor from 2016 to 2024, guiding the city through several federally declared natural disasters, including Hurricane Harvey. He served for nearly 27 years in the Texas House before making the jump to City Hall.

Gov. Greg Abbott can call a special election to fill Turner's congressional seat for the rest of his term. State law does not specify a deadline to call a special election, but if it is called the election is required to happen within two months of the announcement.

Turner's death comes at a critical time in Congress. House Republicans have few votes to spare as they look to advance Trump's agenda, including extending his 2017 tax cuts. With Turner's safely Democratic seat vacant, Republicans now control 218 seats to Democrats' 214 — an extra vote of breathing room in the narrowly divided chamber.

Turner jumped into the race for Jackson Lee's seat with the backing of the late congresswoman's children, including Erica Lee Carter, who served out the final several weeks of her mother's term before passing the baton to Turner. In his bid for the seat, Turner vowed to be "a bridge from where we are now to that future generation of leaders" and said he would serve only two terms in office.

At a debate with other candidates for Jackson Lee's seat, Turner said his cancer diagnosis had made him more motivated to fight for laws expanding health care access. He also gave an impassioned defense of his health and ability to continue holding public office.

“Many people think cancer means cancel your life. No, cancer does not mean the end,” Turner said. “We need to destigmatize cancer. That's why a lot of people don't talk about it, because people use it in the wrong way. So, I'm here, I'm eager, I'm ready to serve.”

Harris County Democratic Party officials picked Turner to replace Jackson Lee as their nominee on the November ballot last year, narrowly selecting him over rival Amanda Edwards, a former at-large member of Houston City Council who served alongside Turner at City Hall from 2016 to 2020. Edwards unsuccessfully challenged Jackson Lee in the 2024 primary and is seen as a possible candidate to succeed Turner.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire, Turner's successor at City Hall, confirmed the news of Turner's death at Wednesday's Houston City Council meeting.

"This comes as a shock to everyone," Whitmire said. "I would ask Houstonians to come together, pray for his family, join us in celebrating this remarkable public servant. Celebrate his life, which we will be doing."

Whitmire, who has recently clashed with Turner over several political and policy issues, said he and Turner were very close and had "been together in good times and bad times." The two overlapped in the Texas Legislature — Whitmire in the Senate, Turner in the House — for Turner's entire legislative career.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said House Democrats were "shocked and saddened" by Turner's sudden death.

"Though he was newly elected to the Congress, Rep. Turner had a long and distinguished career in public service and spent decades fighting for the people of Houston," Jeffries said in a statement. He noted that Turner was at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday evening for Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress, calling him a "fighter until the end."

To highlight his opposition to proposed Medicaid cuts, Turner invited a constituent to the speech, Angela Hernandez, whose daughter has a rare genetic disorder. In a video posted to social media Tuesday evening alongside Hernandez, Turner finished by saying, "Don't mess with Medicaid." Jeffries invoked that as Turner's "final message to his beloved constituents."

Turner was born in 1954 in Acres Homes, a work-class and predominantly Black neighborhood in northwest Houston. He was the sixth of nine children to Eddie and Ruby Mae Turner. After Turner's father died when he was 13, his mother worked as a maid at a hotel in downtown Houston; Turner later said his mother's perseverance and optimism left a mark on him into his years as a politician.

Turner began his path to law and politics at Klein High School, once an all-white school until Black students — including Turner — began getting bussed to school amid an era of desegregation. At Klein, Turner was a debate champion, student body president and valedictorian. He earned degrees from the University of Houston and Harvard Law School and began his own law firm in 1983, several years before he was first elected to the Texas House.

During his time in Austin, Turner wielded outsized power for a Democrat serving in a Republican-controlled Legislature. He spent nearly 20 years on the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee and at the time of his exit was the only Democrat to chair a budget subcommittee, overseeing funding for the judiciary, criminal justice and public safety.

Turner also served for more than 15 years on two of the state House’s most powerful committees: State Affairs, which oversees a sweeping range of key legislation, and Calendars, which sets the agenda for bills heard on the House floor.

During budget debates on the House floor, Turner was known for using an abacus as a prop to underscore his opposition to GOP tax cuts.

“When the abacus came out, I knew I was done,” State Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, wrote on social media. “You will be missed, my friend.”

State Rep. Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat and the House Democratic Caucus leader, said Wednesday on the Texas House floor that he was “devastated” by Turner’s death.

“Sylvester was more than just a colleague for me. He was my adviser. He was my mentor. He was my personal hero,” Wu said, getting choked up.

When Wu began working as a legislative staffer in 2005, he recalled, “there were only two names that I knew before coming to work here, and that was [longtime Rep.] Senfronia Thompson and Sylvester Turner. Because they were people who were outspoken for fighting for their communities and defending the poor and the working class and anybody who got stepped on.”

Turner was elected Houston mayor in 2015 in his third run for the job, following losses in 1991 and 2003.

Turner’s first mayoral term was largely defined by a successful push to overhaul Houston’s public pension systems, along with the city’s recovery from Hurricane Harvey.

Turner, an architect of the pension reform plan, helped drive a bill through the Legislature that aimed to shore up the city’s failing pension funds by cutting retiree benefits and capping future pension costs, among other changes. The reform package won approval in Austin despite opposition from current and retired Houston firefighters, who said the changes required too many cuts to their benefits even though their pension fund was in better shape than those of the city’s police and municipal workers.

The bad blood between Turner and the firefighters spilled over into another acrimonious labor dispute over how much firefighters would be paid. After going years with minimal pay raises, the firefighters tried to resolve the stalemate with a ballot measure requiring them to be paid equally to police officers, which Turner insisted would leave the city’s finances in shambles. The measure passed but was struck down by the Texas Supreme Court; the matter was later resolved under Whitmire, when Houston City Council granted firefighters hundreds of millions in back pay as part of a $1.5 billion settlement.

Turner also routinely butted heads with state leaders over how to administer the billions of federal dollars approved for southeast Texas’ recovery from Hurricane Harvey. The state General Land Office eventually took over part of the city’s housing recovery itself, blaming Turner’s administration for moving too slowly; Turner said the state agency was to blame for the slow distribution of federal aid.

After winning reelection in 2019, Turner spent the first half of his next term steering the city through the COVID-19 pandemic.

At times, his final years in office were overshadowed by controversies. In 2021, Turner’s housing director accused him of steering affordable housing money to a firm run by the mayor’s former law partner. Turner said he did not know about the law partner’s involvement in the deal and denied wrongdoing.

Turner also oversaw a limited number of police reforms in his final term after advocates called for wholesale changes in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.

Reflecting on his legacy while presiding over his final city council meeting in 2023, Turner said he was leaving office knowing that “no other mayor in the city of Houston has dealt with seven federally declared disasters, pensions, a consent decree, social civil unrest all at the same time.”

“You have to know your value. You have to know what you have done,” Turner said. “And if you know what you have done, then you can move forward with the assurance that all is well.”

Turner's family said information regarding funeral services is forthcoming.

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