Voters in Texas’s 18th Congressional District have a problem: Their representatives keep dying. First longtime lawmaker Sheila Jackson Lee perished last July, then former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner passed away this month.

Normally, residents of the 18th would get to keep having representation in Congress, but they have yet another problem: The majority-minority district is a heavily Democratic, one of the bluest in the state. And Republicans don’t want another Democratic vote in the House.

That seems to be why, for the meantime, following the two recent deaths, the 18th is unlikely get to have anyone in Washington until next year.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has a choice about the timing of the election to replace Turner that could prop up House Speaker Mike Johnson’s historically narrow, five-seat GOP majority.

Abbott can either call an election for May 3, for later this year, or for November 4, with the latter date creating a six-month delay in when district........

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