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Sheila Jackson Lee
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 18th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 1995
Preceded by	Craig Washington
Member of the Houston City Council from the 4th at-large district
In office January 2, 1990 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	Anthony Hall
Succeeded by	John Peavy
Personal details
Born	Sheila Jackson (1950-01-12) January 12, 1950 (age 68) New York City, New York, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Elwyn Lee
Children	2
Education	Yale University (BA) University of Virginia (JD)
Website	House website

Sheila Jackson Lee (born January 12, 1950) is an American politician. She is currently the U.S. Representative for Texas's 18th congressional district, serving since 1995. The district includes most of central Houston. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Early life and education

External video

Congresswoman Jackson Lee "Kneeling in Defense of 1st Amendment", speech in the House of Representatives, September 25, 2017

Jackson Lee was born Sheila Jackson in Queens, New York. Her parents were both immigrants from Jamaica.^[1] She graduated from Jamaica High School in Queens. She earned a B.A. in political science from Yale University in 1972, followed by a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1975.^[2] She is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.^[3]

Early political career

Jackson Lee made three unsuccessful attempts at local judgeships before becoming a municipal judge from 1987 to 1990.^[4]
Jackson Lee, along with Sylvia Garcia, was appointed by then Mayor of Houston Kathy Whitmire. In 1989 she won the at-large position for a seat on the Houston City Council, serving until 1994.^[4] While on the city council, Jackson Lee helped pass a safety ordinance that required parents to keep their guns away from children.^[5] She also worked for expanded summer hours at city parks and recreation centers as a way to combat gang violence.^[6]

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

1994

In 1994, Jackson Lee challenged four-term incumbent U.S. Congressman Craig Washington in the Democratic primary.^[4] Washington had come under fire for opposing several projects that would have benefited the Houston area.^[7] Jackson Lee defeated Washington in a rout, taking 63% to Washington's 37%.^[8] The victory was tantamount to election in this heavily Democratic, black-majority district. In the general election, she defeated Republican nominee Jerry Burley 73%-24%.^[9]

1996–2008

During this time period, Jackson Lee was never challenged in the Democratic primary. She won re-election during this time with at least 76% of the vote.^[10]

2010

For the first time in her congressional career, Jackson Lee was challenged in the Democratic primary; her opponents were Houston City Councilmember Jarvis Johnson and Sean Roberts. She defeated them 67%-28%-5%.^[11]

It was reported that in October 2010 Jackson Lee was "asking the Department of Justice to investigate whether tea party groups are intimidating black and Hispanic voters in her district." She requested that Attorney General Eric Holder send poll monitors to make sure that a local group wasn't stopping people from voting.^[12]

She won the general election with 70 percent of the vote, the lowest winning percent of her career.^[13]

2012

In 2012, Jackson Lee was not challenged in the Democratic primary and won the general election with 75 percent of the ballots cast.^[14]

2014

In 2014, Jackson Lee defeated Republican Sean Seibert by 76,097 votes to 26,049.^[15]

2016

Four Republicans competed in the March 1 primary election for the right to challenge Jackson Lee in the November 8 general election. Lori Bartley, with 5,679 votes (33.7 percent), led the field and faced a runoff on April 24 with the second-placed contender, Reggie Gonzales, who drew 5,578 votes (33.1 percent). Two other contenders, the stronger of whom was Sharon Joy Fisher with 4,405 votes (26.1 percent), held the remainder of the ballots cast.^[16] Bartley then won the nomination over Gonzalez, 58 to 42 percent.^[17]

In the general election, Jackson Lee defeated Bartley by her customary 3-1 margin with 150,157 votes to Bartley's 48,306.^[18]

Tenure

Prior to the 110th Congress, Jackson Lee served on the House Science Committee and on the Subcommittee that oversees space policy and NASA.^{[citation needed]} She is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus,^[19][20] and a CBC whip.^[7]

Foreign policy

In 2000, she favored permanently normalizing trade status for China, arguing that it would aid both human rights and Houston's economy.^[21]

Jackson Lee traveled to the 2001 World Conference against Racism in South Africa, and has backed sanctions against Sudan.^[22] On April 28, 2006, Jackson Lee, along with four other members of Congress and six other activists, was arrested for disorderly conduct in front of Sudan's embassy in Washington. They were protesting the role of Sudan's government in ethnic cleansing in Darfur.^[23]

Jackson Lee has urged better relations between the U.S. and Venezuela, which she describes as a friendly nation. She said the U.S. should reconsider its ban on selling F-16 fighter jets and spare parts to that country. The U.S. State Department bans such sales due to "lack of support" for counter-terrorist operations and Venezuela's relations with Iran and Cuba.^[24][25]

In July 2010 Jackson Lee said: "Today, we have two Vietnams, side by side, North and South, exchanging and working. We may not agree with all that North Vietnam is doing, but they are living in peace. I would look for a better human rights record for North Vietnam, but they are living side by side."^[26] It was noted that Vietnam had not been split for four decades, and that the current government of Vietnam does not consider South Vietnam to have ever been a sovereign state.^[27][28]

Immigration

Jackson Lee is active on immigration issues.^[29] She has proposed increasing border security and increasing opportunities for legalization among those living in the United States. She has opposed a guest worker program, saying that the idea of guest: "connotate[s] 'invite, come,' and, at the same time, it misleads because you ask people to come for a temporary job of three to six years and they have to leave if they don't have another job and I would think that they would not."^[30]

Criticism of Tea Party

Speaking in July 2010 at the NAACP national convention, Jackson Lee compared the Tea Party to the KKK.^[31]

WikiLeaks

In an October 2016 interview on MSNBC, Jackson mistakenly denounced Wikipedia in place of WikiLeaks. The story was concerned with the Hillary Clinton email controversy, with Jackson's exact quotation being "You know that I'm going to first of all denounce the utilization of this intrusion by Wikipedia through the Russian intrusion," "This is what it's about. Espionage just like what was said over these last couple of days. We need to be concerned about the intrusion of Russia and Putin in these elections."^[32]

Health care

Jackson Lee said in January 2011 that repealing the health care law would be in violation of the Constitution. She argued that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is constitutional under the Commerce Clause, and that repealing it would violate both the Fifth and the Fourteenth Amendments.^[33][34][35]

Al-Qaeda

At a Homeland Security Committee hearing on radical Muslims in the US, held in March 2011, Jackson Lee said that Peter King's hearings were helping al-Qaeda and "going the same route as Arizona." She complained that the hearings were scaring Muslim Americans and called them "an outrage."^[36]

Legislation

On September 27, 2013, Jackson Lee introduced the Essential Transportation Worker Identification Credential Assessment Act (H.R. 3202; 113th Congress), a bill that would direct the United States Department of Homeland Security to assess the effectiveness of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program.^[37] The bill would require an independent assessment of how well the TWIC program improves security and reduces risks at the facilities and vessels it is responsible for.^[38]

Space program

In 1997, while on a trip to the Mars Pathfinder operations center in California, Jackson Lee confused the planet Mars with Earth's own moon, asking whether the Pathfinder had succeeded in taking a picture of the flag planted on Mars by Neil Armstrong in 1969.^[39][40]

Hurricane naming

Jackson Lee complained in 2003 that storm names were too white. "All racial groups should be represented," she said, and asked officials to "try to be inclusive of African-American names."^[41]

Foreign travel

In May 2015, The Washington Post reported Jackson Lee took a trip to Azerbaijan paid for by the government of that country.^[42][43]

Confederate flag issue

On Thursday, July 9, 2015, Jackson Lee and others who were engaged in a debate over the Confederate battle flag produced an erroneous reproduction of what they thought was the original flag. The original battle flag contained 13 stars representing each state of the Confederacy as of 1861. The flag that Jackson Lee presented to members of Congress contained 17 stars.^[44]

United Airlines issue

On December 24, 2017, United Airlines allegedly gave a passenger's first class seat away to Jackson Lee. United Airlines claimed that the 63-year-old passenger had canceled her flight, which the passenger denied and alleged that the airline threatened to kick her off the flight for her complaint and for trying to take a picture of Jackson Lee. Subsequently, Jackson Lee released the following statement:^[45]

"Since this was not any fault of mine, the way the individual continued to act appeared to be, upon reflection, because I was an African American woman, seemingly an easy target along with the African American flight attendant who was very, very nice...This saddens me, especially at this time of year given all of the things we have to work on to help people. But in the spirit of this season and out of the sincerity of my heart, if it is perceived that I had anything to do with this, I am kind enough to simply say sorry."

Committee assignments

• 
  Committee on Homeland Security
  
  • Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence
  
  
  • 
    Subcommittee on Transportation Security (Ranking Member)
  
  


• 
  Committee on the Judiciary
  
  • Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet
  
  
  • Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
  
  
  • Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement
  
  

Caucus memberships

Jackson Lee is or has been a member of a number of caucuses, including:

• The 9-11 Commission Caucus


• The Building a Better America Caucus (BABAC)


• The Congressional Caucus on Global Road Safety
  


• The Congressional Human Rights Caucus.


• The Congressional Algeria Caucus


• The Congressional Pakistan Caucus


• The US-Afghan Caucus


• 
  Veterinary Medicine Caucus^[46]


• 
  Congressional Progressive Caucus.^[47]


• 
  House Baltic Caucus^[48]


• 
  Congressional Arts Caucus^[49]


• 
  Afterschool Caucuses^[50]


• 
  Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus^[51]


• 
  United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus^[52]

Treatment of staffers

The Houston Press reported in 1998 that five of Lee's staffers quit that spring: "According to Lee's former Capitol office executive assistant and events scheduler Rhiannon Burruss, the congresswoman's abrasive ways not only drove off staff members but irritated Continental Airlines staffers to the point where one suggested she fly on a competitor instead."^[53][54]

In 2011 she was reported to have one of the highest staff turnovers in Congress and to be one of the worst bosses. The Huffington Post and Houston Chronicle reported that she had gone through 11 chiefs of staff in 11 years.^[55][56] In 2011 she was named as one of the "worst bosses in Washington" by The Daily Caller.^[57] The Huffington Post stated that "Jackson Lee regularly appears on Washingtonian magazine's list of the "Best and Worst of Congress" as the "meanest" member of House of Representatives."^[55][58] That reputation as the worst boss on Capitol Hill continued; in 2012 Washingtonian again listed her as the meanest member of the House,^[59] a report in 2013 concluded that "the veteran Texas Democrat had the highest turnover rate for all of Congress over the past decade."^[60]

Personal life

Jackson Lee moved to Houston after her husband, Elwyn Lee, took a job at the University of Houston. Her husband now holds a dual position of Vice Chancellor and Vice President for Student Affairs of the University of Houston System and the University of Houston, respectively.^[2] They have two children.^[61]

See also

• Politics of Houston


• List of United States Representatives


• Women in the United States House of Representatives

References

External links

• 
  Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee official U.S. House site


• Sheila Jackson Lee for U.S. Congress


• 
  Sheila Jackson Lee at Curlie
  


• 
  


• 
  Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
  


• 
  Profile at Vote Smart
  


• 
  Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
  


• 
  Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress
  


• 
  Appearances on C-SPAN
  


• Sheila Jackson Lee, Accountable Corporations The Nation, January 19, 2006


• Sheila Jackson Lee, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: Immigration is the Civil Rights Issue of Our Time Democracy Now, April 4, 2006


• Tim Fleck, What's Driving Miss Sheila? Houston Press, February 20, 1997.