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Sheila Jackson Lee, one of Texas’s longest-serving and most distinctive members of Congress, died July 19 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 74. Jackson Lee was a ubiquitous figure in Houston politics, instantly recognizable for her jewel-toned outfits and halo braids that encircled her head like a crown. To detractors, she was Queen Sheila—imperious, impatient, and self-important. To supporters, she was a tireless champion for the downtrodden and a beacon of Black power. In 2021 she played a lead role in making Juneteenth the first new national holiday in 38 years. It was one of her proudest accomplishments in nearly four decades of representing Texas’s Eighteenth Congressional District, a seat formerly held by civil rights icons Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland.
The future congresswoman was born in Queens, New York, in 1950 to day laborer Ezra Clyde Jackson, a first-generation Jamaican immigrant, and nurse Ivalita Bennett Jackson. Upon graduating from Jamaica High School, Jackson Lee entered Yale University as a member of the college’s first-ever coed class. There she met fellow student Elwyn Cornelius Lee, a native Houstonian, whom she would marry in 1973. After graduating with a bachelor’s in political science, Jackson Lee entered the University of Virginia School of Law while her husband attended Yale Law School. In the late seventies they moved to Houston, where Jackson Lee took a job at prestigious law firm Fulbright & Jaworski while her husband accepted a teaching position at the University of Houston, where he would spend the rest of his career.
Jackson Lee stayed at Fulbright & Jaworski for two years before leaving for jobs at a series of other firms. But her true ambition lay in politics. She lost her first three races—two for district judge and one for probate court. Finally, in 1989, she won election to an at-large seat on the Houston City Council, beating former city controller Leonel Castillo by running a frenetic campaign in which she honed her talent for publicity. She served two full terms on the council and had just won a third when, in 1994, she decided to challenge incumbent Democrat Craig Washington for the Eighteenth Congressional District seat.
It was an audacious move. Washington was a prominent attorney and a well-known political figure in the majority-Black district, while Jackson Lee was initially seen as an upstart carpetbagger from New York. “We went up against the [Black] establishment,” recalled Willie Isles, a key Jackson Lee supporter. “She didn’t grow up in Fifth Ward, and it’s been a Fifth Ward–Third Ward game for years.” But Jackson Lee highlighted Washington’s frequent absences from Washington, D.C., pitching herself as a more effective advocate for her constituents. It worked: in the Democratic primary, Jackson Lee won 63 percent of the vote to Washington’s 37 percent before easily trouncing her Republican opponent in the general election.
In the Republican-controlled Congress, Jackson Lee initially struggled to make her mark. She alienated fellow Democrats with her brash style and insistence on trying to amend nearly every bill that passed through one of her committees. Out of around forty amendments she put forward in her first term, only two passed: one increasing funding for the African Development Foundation and one requiring the State Department to consider Ethiopia’s human rights record before awarding the country any aid. Eager to avoid her predecessor’s mistake of ignoring his district, she spoke on the House floor almost every day and directed her staff to issue constant press releases about her activities. When she was back in her district, she made it a point to attend every possible community event, including funerals of constituents—a habit that she would continue for the rest of her political career.
Jackson Lee also gained an enduring reputation for being a tough boss. She ran through nineteen staffers in her first term, a 180 percent turnover rate. Even as she won election after election back home, she became a notorious figure in the Capitol for alleged mistreatment of staff. In 2010, Washingtonian magazine named her the meanest member of Congress. In 2023 an audio recording of Jackson Lee berating a staff member was anonymously leaked. In the wake of the release, Jackson Lee expressed remorse, saying “everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, and that includes my own staff.”
Still, Jackson Lee’s constituents remained loyal. She won fourteen consecutive terms in Congress, rarely facing anything more than token opposition. Even as the demographics of her district changed—from 51 percent Black in 1990 to 31 percent Black in 2020—Jackson Lee retained a personal relationship with the community, much of which considered her something like a family member. And as she gained seniority in Congress, she became more effective, helping create the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, securing disaster relief after Hurricane Harvey, and serving on the powerful Budget, Homeland Security, and Judiciary committees.
“You have to understand how Congress works,” Jackson Lee told this magazine in February 2024. “Congress is a creature of bipartisanship, a creature of collaboration, and a creature of seniority. You have to have all of those elements to get your legislation passed.”
In 2023, after nearly three decades serving in Congress, Jackson Lee shocked the Houston political world by announcing her bid for Houston mayor. If the race was a test of her citywide appeal, it didn’t work: after finishing second to Democratic state senator John Whitmire in the general election, she lost by nearly thirty points in the runoff. Contrary to local speculation, the loss didn’t end Jackson Lee’s political career. Two days later, Jackson Lee announced she was running for a fourteenth term in Congress. Despite a stronger-than-usual challenge from former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards, Jackson Lee handily won reelection. She continued to represent her district until she died.
In the nineties, a reporter asked Jackson Lee’s father about her extraordinary rise to power. “I don’t know where she got her drive, but she’s always had it,” her father replied. “She’s always been like that.”
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