Because Jackson Lee died after winning the Democratic primary, Texas Democratic officials will get to decide who replaces her on the November ballot.

At least three Democrats are considering bids for the Houston-area seat. But Texas Democratic officials — not voters — will decide who will be on the November ballot.

Cook was up 74 votes, according to unofficial results. Johnson has not conceded.

Texans are heading to the polls Tuesday to make their final selections for which Democrats and Republicans will run for various seats in the November election.

Cook will fill John Whitmire’s unexpired term — but will face Johnson again in a Democratic primary runoff for a full four-year term.

State Rep. Jarvis Johnson and emergency room nurse Molly Cook are duking it out in a sleepy special election to briefly occupy the seat vacated when Whitmire was elected mayor.

Whitmire held the Senate seat for four decades. Six Democrats are now competing for the seat in the upper chamber.

2023 marked a first for the Texas Legislature -- the creation of the House Select Committee on Community Safety.

Parents, teachers and retired HISD employees were among the many rallying Friday against an imminent midsemester district takeover by the Texas Education Agency.

For the third straight legislative session, state Rep. Jarvis Johnson, D-Houston, has filed a bill to end Confederate Heroes Day as a state holiday.

As the state’s environmental agency weighs new pollution limits on the plants, several lawmakers have filed bills that would put new restrictions on the facilities, which spew pollutants into mostly low-income neighborhoods.

Rep. Jim Murphy said lawmakers selected projects that would address the state’s nursing and medical professional shortages as the COVID-19 pandemic reiterated additional need for skilled workers.

For years, a handful of Texas lawmakers have tried in vain to pass legislation that would remove or replace the holiday celebrating leaders of the Confederate army. The birthdays of Lee and Davis used to be separate Texas holidays, but lawmakers consolidated them in 1973 to create Confederate Heroes Day. State Rep. Shawn Thierry, D-Houston, filed the other in support. He plans to hold a press conference with Collier and other representatives at noon on the state holiday. In 2015, state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, filed a bill to rename the holiday Civil War Remembrance Day, but it died in committee.

They soon learned it could be a concrete batch plant to service the construction of Oak Hill Parkway, a Texas Department of Transportation plan to widen Highway 290. “It just seems like we’re in this Bermuda Triangle of responsibility and accountability,” said Watson, 64, a retired head of a birdwatching tour business turned anti-concrete batch plant activist. “Because we’re not in the city, the city defers to the county on transportation. It’s like the Wild West.”Watson’s neighborhood faces an increasingly familiar problem for rural and urban homeowners alike across Texas. The number of air permit applications for concrete batch plants in Texas has increased 25% from 2014 to 2019, according to data provided by the TCEQ.