When a House Democrat from Houston died suddenly early Wednesday, he left his party bereft, grieving a lost colleague and missing a critically needed vote amid high stakes and tough math.
Rep. Sylvester Turner, who was 70, was a freshman who was sworn into Congress two months ago after serving for eight years as mayor of Houston. He died before dawn Wednesday after attending Donald Trump’s lengthy, record-shattering address to a joint session of Congress.
Turner had posted on his social media account just hours before the speech that his message to the Trump administration was: “Don’t mess with Medicaid.”
“We were on the floor together last night,” Rep. Al Green, a fellow Texan who was ejected from the House chamber for heckling Trump just a few minutes into his speech, told Axios. “You never know for whom the bell will toll next.”
Turner’s unexpected death leaves Democrats with one less vote to block Republicans from enacting Trump’s agenda. The Republicans’ ultra-slim majority of control now stands at 218-214, giving the GOP just a little more wiggle room.
It means Democrats will need the support of three Republicans—not just two—to achieve any legislative wins, which isn’t out of the question given how diverse and fractured the House Republican Conference is.
The House already had two vacancies left by former Florida GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz, who resigned before abandoning his uphill battle to become attorney general, and Mike Waltz, who became Trump’s national security adviser. Turner’s death makes three vacancies.
Successors for both reliably Republican Florida seats will be chosen in a special election scheduled for April 1. But filling Turner’s seat won’t be nearly as easy.
It’s up to conservative Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to decide when to call a special election to fill Turner’s seat—and he faces no deadline to do so under Texas state law.
The numbers were so tight for Republicans that House Speaker Mike Johnson had to ask Trump to stop poaching GOP members to fill his administration. And he has successfully kept Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York in the House—for the time being—delaying her Senate confirmation to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Democrats have also made difficult concessions, knowing they have a shot at scoring victories against Trump. Rep. Bobby Scott, for example, has all but ruled out a run for governor of Virginia. Running a statewide campaign would keep him on the road, out of the House, where every vote counts and just one absence could be a game changer.
“I don’t want to be that guy,” Scott told the Daily Beast.
Johnson experienced the agony of his super-slim majority firsthand when he barely won the speaker’s gavel on the first day of the 119th Congress in January. It took an hour’s worth of backroom cajoling while GOP leaders held the vote open after three Republicans initially voted against Johnson.
“Every single vote will count,” Johnson foreshadowed in November, “because if someone gets ill or has a car accident or a late flight on their plane, then it affects the vote on the floor.”
