Sheila Jackson Lee Airs New Ad in Texas Mayor Race, Gets Key Detail Wrong That Could Cost Her the Election
CORRECTION, Dec. 5, 2023: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is running for mayor of Houston. The name of the city was misspelled in an earlier version of this article.
Someone clever had better help Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee to handle an advertising blunder that never should have happened. It was the type of oversight that could cost her the Houston mayoral runoff election against Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire.
Undoubtedly, Whitmire will see this as an opportunity and a gift. Using it to his advantage while Lee figures out how to minimize the impact on her campaign seems the obvious next step for both candidates.
The blunder arises from a campaign video shared Saturday on X by the political ad site Medium Buying.
In the video, Lee explains why she is the best candidate for mayor, hitting all the key points.
The congresswoman says she has spent her entire career battling on behalf of the residents of Houston: fighting to keep kids safe from guns, fighting for women’s “reproductive freedom” and fighting for “funding for our police, schools and small businesses.”
“Because if we are going to bring down crime, fix our streets and bring good paying jobs here, then Houston needs a champion who’s ready to fight for what’s right. And I am,” Lee declares. She sticks the landing hard.
The only problem is, as she does, the wrong date to vote appears in the video.
“Vote on or before December 7th,” it says. The actual last day to vote in the city’s runoff election is Dec. 9.
Sheila Jackson Lee is up with this TV ad in the general election runoff for #HoustonMayor — pic.twitter.com/DszWP4csPg
— Medium Buying (@MediumBuying) December 2, 2023
Listen, anyone can make a mistake. But at this level and in this type of competitive race, mistakes like these should never happen. That’s the reason public relations companies supporting political candidates get paid so much.
Her team should have caught the mistake. Alternatively, given her reputation for berating staffers, it’s possible one of them did this on purpose to make her look bad.
Either way, the campaign ad error calls her own “judgment” into question.
Her leadership skills, management capabilities and priorities are now up for scrutiny and debate. The simple mistake reflects a problem not so simple to dig her way out of.
Add it to the pile of problems Texas is facing. One of the biggest is illegal immigration, which is overwhelming the state and affecting its health and welfare along with the direction of its party lines.
Once reliably Republican-voting, the state is no longer as dependably red as in prior years. Demographics are shifting due to an influx of new residents, many from blue states such as California.
That can’t be overlooked. It needs to be recognized, understood, and dealt with by Republicans. You know Democrats are doing this.
For now, however, Whitmire has just been handed a golden egg that he can use to crack over Lee’s head and fry her mayoral campaign.
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