Texas Representative Sheila Jackson Lee Battles Pancreatic Cancer

“I am confident that my doctors have developed the best possible plan to target my specific disease,” Jackson Lee stated. “The road ahead will not be easy, but I stand in faith that God will strengthen me.”

Representative for Texas’ 18th District, which includes portions of Houston, Jackson Lee just prevailed in a primary election to take back her seat. This comes after late last year, when Jackson Lee ran for mayor of the city but was unsuccessful.

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She has been a member of the Congressional Black Caucus for around thirty years. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was most recently reintroduced in May by Jackson Lee.

Jackson Lee is a member of the Homeland Security and Judiciary committees in the House.

She also supports public education, having asked for a Title VI probe into the takeover of Houston’s Independent School District by the education department’s Office for Civil Rights last year.

The representative made the suggestion that racial changes to the eighth-largest congressional district could have nationwide effects.

“This is not helping our families,” Jackson Lee stated in March. “It’s not helping our children. That’s our number one priority, so I’m going to work with them until the very end until we are successful in bringing back an elected board and the governance that has the input of our parents and our teachers so they can do what is best for our children’s well being,” she continued.

School district data indicates that over 80% of HISD pupils identify as Black or Hispanic. The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids discrimination on the grounds of race, color, or national origin (Title VI).

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