Jackson Lee reveals a much different side
As U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee prepares for a reelection bid for her House seat, it may be hard for some voters to see beyond the recent headlines about her management style and the alleged recording of her berating a staffer.
I’m not defending such actions or those of any manager who abuses power by mistreating employees. I’m also not defending her reputation for being tough or, even, mean.
However, I want to share a different side of Jackson Lee that I saw in November before the city’s runoff elections.
She spoke at a small community meeting at Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Riverside Terrace hosted by the MacGregor Super Neighborhood. That night, she arrived quietly and sat in an empty seat next to me until it was her time to speak.
Anyone who has heard Jackson Lee address a crowd knows she has a booming voice and is persistent with her political messages. She also doesn’t wait for her turn at the podium and has been known to exceed her allotted time at a microphone, whether it’s a funeral, a concert or a political event.
That night, she was different.
Her voice was low and reserved. She talked about her deep love for Houston, a city she’s been a part of since she moved here in the late 1980s. She shared a vision for the city, ways technology can guide us into the future, and how legislation like the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal could help us fix things.
She didn’t focus on our problems, such as crime and homelessness, which often are the cornerstones of political campaigns because every politician believes they have the answer. Few ever do.
Jackson Lee, instead, talked as if we were having a conversation over dinner and not like a political rally where she might be speaking boastfully at us. I think everyone in the room felt this was a different Jackson Lee.
No TV news cameras were covering the meeting. No one was taking cellphone video to post on social media, either.
Like most neighbors in attendance, I was there as a concerned citizen wanting a better city for my children.
Tomaro Bell, the Super Neighborhood president, shared her thoughts later by phone: “What we heard was our neighbor, our friend, our educator and fighter who was telling us it’s going to be OK.”
Several people, including Bell, stood up that night to talk about what Jackson Lee had done for the community, especially how she made sure people had the resources they needed during disasters, such as Hurricane Harvey, the pandemic and 2021’s winter storm.
I learned more about her work in our neighborhood that night than I had in any previous meeting.
Sabrina Dean-Bass, who has lived in the Riverside Terrace area for five years, was moved by Jackson Lee’s speech.
“I came home and told my husband that I wish I could have captured what she said and put it into a campaign commercial. That’s what people need to hear. We needed 1.5 million people to hear what we heard, not just 15.”
Jackson Lee’s District 18 has nearly 800,000 residents, but in the runoff election for the mayor’s race this month, only some 250,000 registered voters cast ballots. A measly 68,000 residents voted on the runoff election day on Dec. 9.
To get beyond the negative headlines and maybe even inspire more folks to vote, the Jackson Lee I heard that night is the politician we need to hear more from.