Fletcher’s primary opponents drop out of race
In less than 24 hours, U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher went from having a competitive primary election in March to getting a free pass to the November general election for Houston’s 7th Congressional District.
On Monday morning, Centrell Reed, a Houston Democrat, qualified to be on the March 1 primary ballot against Fletcher. And later in the day, wealthy businessman Muhammad Tahir Javed filed to join the race just before the deadline to qualify.
But by the end of Tuesday, both challengers dropped out under pressure from key members of Congress.
Reed pulled out by the end of Monday and switched to a different congressional race. And on Tuesday, Javed acknowledged he was being asked to get out of the race but said he was determined to stay in it. Several hours later, Javed declared he had pulled out, too, with no further explanation.
Though the 7th Congressional District has been heavily redrawn to include new areas for Fletcher, a two-term incumbent who is one of the best fundraisers in Texas, she still would have been favored to win the primary based on her past successful campaigns.
Javed represented a potentially significant challenge. In 2018, Javed spent over $1 million of his own money in a failed bid to defeat now-U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia.
And Javed has been a Democratic donor for a decade, which has put him in the company of President Joe Biden and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. In 2016 he hosted Clinton for a fundraiser at his home in Beaumont. Since July, he’s been the deputy national finance chair for the Democratic National Committee.
Javed said a big reason he wanted to run for Congress was because of how the district had been redrawn to include nearly 200,000 new people from diverse Fort Bend County. The result is the 7th District now has the largest percentage of Asian voters of any in the state. About 70 percent of the voting-age population is now non-Anglo and 21 percent of the voting-age population is of Asian descent, according to U.S. Census records.
Javed, who emigrated from Pakistan nearly 20 years ago, said he felt like the district was perfectly drawn for him.
“This is home,” he said. “Our communities need representation.” Javed, 55, has more than two dozen companies including hospitals, distribution networks and real estate businesses. One of those businesses is Riceland Healthcare in Beaumont where former Congressman Nick Lampson, who once represented areas of Fort Bend County, is the chief operations officer.
The minute he got in the race, Javed said his phone started lighting up with people trying to get him to reconsider.
Reed, who lists her occupation as being in media, refiled her papers to run in the newly created 38th Congressional District, which includes parts such as the Energy Corridor that have been in the 7th Congressional District. In that March 1 Democratic primary, Reed will face Diana Martinez Alexander, who ran for Harris County Commissioners Court in 2020, and Duncan F. Klussmann, the former superintendent of the Spring Branch Independent School District.
On the Republican side, 10 candidates have filed, including U.S. Army veteran Wesley Hunt and Harris County Republican Party activist Mark Ramsey.
While the primary election is scheduled for March 1, in-person early voting begins Feb. 15. Absentee voting starts Jan. 15.
Fletcher, an attorney, won a crowded primary in 2018 and knocked off longtime incumbent Republican Rep. John Culberson in the general election. In 2020, Fletcher had no primary opposition and narrowly defeated Hunt in the general election to win a second two-year term in Congress.
Fletcher may have a clear path to the Democratic nomination, but she will face a Republican in the November general election. Four Republicans have qualified to be in the GOP primary, which is also on March 1. Mediator Rudy A. Atencio, business owner Tina Blum Cohen, community relations professional Tim Stroud and rancher Johnny Teague are in that contest.