Abbott delays calling a special House election. Democrats cry foul.

HOUSTON – The New York Times reports Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic House leader, on Monday accused Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas of deliberately delaying a special election in a solidly Democratic district in Houston in order to cushion the House Republicans’ slim majority. Mr. Jeffries said in an interview that Mr. Abbott had been “feverishly working to deny representation to the people of Houston” and to help Republicans in the House pass a budget favored by President Trump that is expected to include cuts to Medicaid and other services. “House Republicans are running scared legislatively and politically, which is why Gov. Greg Abbott is slow-walking the special election to replace Sylvester Turner,” Mr. Jeffries said. “They are rigging the system.”

Republicans hold a slim 218-to-213 majority over Democrats, but two open House seats in Florida are likely to be filled by Republicans after a special election on Tuesday. Mr. Trump also pulled his nomination of Representative Elise Stefanik to the United Nations, fearing that a vacant seat in her New York district could be won by a Democrat. Two House Democrats, Representatives Sylvester Turner of Texas and Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona, died in the early months of this Congress. The Texas governor had until the end of last week to call a special election in time for the vote in Mr. Turner’s 18th Congressional District to be held on May 3, the next regularly scheduled Election Day in the state. Instead, Mr. Abbott, a Republican, did not act, and has not said when he will call the election to replace Mr. Turner, who died on March 5 after two months in office. By doing so, Mr. Abbott has helped House Republicans. Democrats in New York, with Mr. Jeffries’s encouragement, had threatened a similar gambit for Ms. Stefanik’s seat before Mr. Trump left her in it. Meanwhile, Arizona’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, has decided to leave a heavily Democratic House seat in Tucson, Ariz., vacant until after a special election in September.