Gov. Greg Abbott called a November special election to fill Texas' 18th Congressional District seat, which was left vacant after the passing of the late Houston mayor and former congressman Sylvester Turner.

The decision to wait until November means a narrowly divided Congress will be down a Democratic representative for most of 2025.

Democrats have argued that Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, did not act faster to fill the vacant seat because he didn’t want the narrow Republicans majority in Congress to shrink.