Talk:2024 Texas's 18th congressional district special election

Is this election actually happening?

This may be a dumb question, but is this special election even going to happen? Per this 21 June edit I made to the article "List of current members of the United States House of Representatives", governor Abbott had not yet issued a writ. To my knowledge, he still has not done so, and he is not required to by state law. Do we have any sources saying Abbott actually called a special election, or at least that he intends to do so in the near future? If no, then this article is built on speculation and I would argue its creation was premature. 188.176.174.30 (talk) 12:21, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Oh, I forgot: Pinging @Davey2116:, who created this article. 188.176.174.30 (talk) 12:24, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

I've seen conflicting info on this. But according to this source, "the Constitution says that he has to call one". Davey2116 (talk) 19:57, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Sorry about my untimely reply, I was busy off-wiki.

That must be a reference to the House Vacancies Clause (Article I, Section 2, Clause 4) (constitution.congress.gov link) of the federal, as opposed to state, constitution. That clause is often ignored when a special election would be impractically close to the beginning of the new congress, and it sets no hard-and-fast limits for when Abbott has to call an election. Community Impact and Houston Landing both say that he has to call one but that there is no deadline for when, while Houston Public Media quotes a TSU professor as saying there will be a special election.

Input from other editors, regardless of their opinions on this matter, would be welcome. Unless and until an election is actually called, I don't think we should have this article, and the title should be redirected elsewhere. The public communication from governments and news media has been rather confused and at times contradictory, so I don't blame you for creating this article, @Davey2116:, but I think it was the wrong call.

This is speculation on my part, and it may violate NOTFORUM, so feel free to ignore this paragraph, but I suspect Abbott might be trying to delay until it is too late to organize an election, so he can leave the seat of an opposite-party Congresswoman vacant for the rest of this term. We're still over three months out from the general election and five from the beginning of next term, so that would be a few months of partisan advantage. I would be happy to be wrong (and I don't mean to be an alarmist), but governors usually announce a special election within a week or so of a vacancy arising, and we're nearly twice as long out from Jackson Lee's death. Something feels fishy here, and that has muddied the question about whether this article should exist. 188.176.174.30 (talk) 14:29, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

Guess I was wrong, there will be a special election. According to the Texas Tribune and Houston Press, it will be held on 5 November alongside the general election. This is a moot point now, so sorry for wasting your time, Davey. 188.176.174.30 (talk) 02:06, 3 August 2024 (UTC)

Republican Party

I've yet to see a republican announce yet, but should we add the "Republican Party" tag under candidates just for it to be there? Or maybe scrap the "candidates" tab and make it like other elections, with "Democratic Party/Primary" and "Republican Party/Primary" tabs? DivaaNut (talk) 10:30, 3 August 2024 (UTC)