State Rep. Jarvis Johnson and community organizer Molly Cook are headed for a primary runoff after neither one gained a majority in the Democratic primary for the Texas Senate District 15 seat previously held by Houston Mayor John Whitmire.
With all of the Election Day vote centers counted, Jarvis had 36.13 percent of the vote, Cook ended with 20.65 percent and attorney-mediator Todd Litton collected15.84 percent. The primary runoff will be held on May 28.
Whichever candidate succeeds will challenge Republican Joseph Trahan, a real estate agent and businessman running unopposed. Cook referred to the contest as a “generational race” as it is the first time in 40 years that Whitmire’s seat is open.
Cook first challenged Whitmire for his Senate seat in 2022. She was the only candidate running opposite the former state senator at that time. This year, alongside Johnson (D-Houston) and Cook, four other candidates entered the pool to secure the Democratic nomination.
In a University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs poll, Cook and Johnson were neck and neck with one another, with 18 percent of likely Democratic primary voters indicating they would vote for each candidate respectively.
The three other candidates in the race, including lawyer Beto Cardenas, energy developer and former Houston ISD teacher Karthik Soora and charter school leader and executive director of the Anderson Center for the Arts Michelle Anderson Bonton all collected 10 percent or less of the vote.
Nancy Sims, a political science lecturer at the University of Houston, said voter turnout and the types of voters that cast their ballots drove this race. Sims added that the younger and more progressive voters were, the more support for Cook.
Sims said Cook had name identification from running previously, and Johnson had a guaranteed block of voters as a state representative within his district.
According to Rice University political science professor Bob Stein those who supported Cook didn’t want any other candidate but her. He indicated that Johnson’s voters could’ve split.
Throughout campaign events, Johnson pointed to his experience and relationships — whether good or bad — with working with Republican colleagues and said this positioned himself ahead of his opponents.
“I am bringing the same energy as a politician willing to compromise and see both sides, “I think that’s where we are in this state whether it’s either this or that, nothing in between,” Johnson said. “Let’s be real. That’s not what politics is.”
“Experience matters because all the bills that we want to get passed won’t pass unless you have relationships because you aren’t going to get them passed with just Democrats — that’s not going to happen,” he added.
Whitmire was known as someone who could work as a facilitator across parties in the Texas Legislature, Stein said he added that the mayor may see Johnson as more helpful and aligned with his efforts.
In Johnson’s time in the Texas Legislature, as a Black Democrat, he has been appointed to Vice Chair of the Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee — a consequential committee that he points out is currently the GOP’s entire platform.
Johnson has also worked on foster care reforms, affordable housing policies and expanding legal representation for foster youth. Although he pointed to his ability to work across the aisle, Johnson acknowledged that his Republican colleagues wouldn’t agree on all of his priorities such as advocating for gun control in the wake of the Uvalde Massacre — but that he was unwavering in his stance.
Cook said the key to working with Republicans is being truthful and transparent to constituents on what Democratic leaders choose to fight and decide to work with.
During Cook’s 2022 contest against Whitmire, she garnered 42 percent of the vote. After she lost, Cook ran a legislative pilot to create an agenda for her district, and she was an organizer in the Fair For Houston Proposition B campaign to get more representation for Houston on the Houston-Galveston Area Council.
She said she aligns her priorities with the needs she hears about during her work in the community. This includes access to healthcare and reproductive rights, firearm safety, public education and improvements in transportation — which she sees as an opportunity for bipartisan work.
“The obstacles are going to be nonstop. I have found that the most successful way to fight is to be doggedly persistent. You don’t have to necessarily piss everyone off every time. You just don’t stop,” Cook said. “That is a skill and a personality trait that I have, and I am going to bring with me to the Texas Senate.”
Cook added that she is not trying to cater specifically to the younger demographic — but instead all groups of voters willing to support her — but she did think her skills from community organizing and her path from nursing school to state leadership would interest younger voters who could see themselves in her.
“It’s not just the same old, same old,” Cook said. “It’s fresh work, it’s a fresh perspective. No one is trying to bribe me. We’re coming in fresh, with an honest look at things and a desire to serve.”
Separate to the contest to take over Whitmire’s seat, either Johnson or Molly will likely run against Trahan in a May special election that Governor Greg Abbott called to determine who will serve out the rest of the former state senator’s term which ends on January 1, 2025.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
