Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Erica Lee Carter
Erica Lee Carter (Democratic Party) was a member of the U.S. House, representing Texas' 18th Congressional District. She assumed office on November 12, 2024. She left office on January 3, 2025.
Carter (Democratic Party) ran in a special election to the U.S. House to represent Texas' 18th Congressional District. She won in the special general election on November 5, 2024.
Biography
Erica Lee Carter earned a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master's degree from Duke University’s Terry Sanford School of Public Policy. Her career experience includes working in the policy division for Commissioner Rodney Ellis (D) in Harris County Precinct One, as a budget analyst for the Governor of New York, and as a first-grade teacher in the Houston Independent School District.[1]
Key votes
- See also: Key votes
Ballotpedia monitors legislation that receives a vote and highlights the ones that we consider to be key to understanding where elected officials stand on the issues. To read more about how we identify key votes, click here.
Key votes: 118th Congress, 2023-2025
The 118th United States Congress began on January 3, 2023, and ended on January 3, 2025. At the start of the session, Republicans held the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives (222-212), and Democrats held the majority in the U.S. Senate (51-49). Joe Biden (D) was the president and Kamala Harris (D) was the vice president. We identified the key votes below using Congress' top-viewed bills list and through marquee coverage of certain votes on Ballotpedia.
| Key votes: 118th Congress, 2023-2025 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vote | Bill and description | Status | ||||||
 Nay |
|
 Passed (219-184)[3]
| ||||||
Elections
2024
See also: Texas' 18th Congressional District special election, 2024
General election
Special general election for U.S. House Texas District 18
Erica Lee Carter defeated Maria Dunn and Kevin Dural in the special general election for U.S. House Texas District 18 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Erica Lee Carter (D) | 67.9 | 146,413 |
 | Maria Dunn (R)  | 22.2 | 47,835 | |
 | Kevin Dural (R) | 9.9 | 21,257 | |
| Total votes: 215,505 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Carter in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Erica Lee Carter did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign website
Carter’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
Women and Families Erica Lee Carter knows the challenges that working women face. She will fight for equal work for women, against discrimination and sexual harassment, and for paid sick days so working people can better provide for their families. She will continue to make sure that federal funding flows to the 18th Congressional District for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, prevent cuts to Head Start, and advocate increase funding for public schools. Erica Lee Carter will fight for the legacy of her late mother Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee who was a champion for criminal justice reform and juvenile justice reform. Erica is a strong supporter of bail reform and will author bills to help families of the incarcerated. And Erica will fight every day to end the epidemic of mass incarceration that unfairly targets African Americans. Education Erica Lee Carter will take on the challenge to continue to lead the way to bring dollars in federal funding for education back to Texas. As a Former School Board Trustee, Erica will make sure that schools are receiving increased funding for education, protecting Head Start school readiness programs from cuts, and everything in between. Erica will committed to cutting student loan interest rates and to enabling Americans to graduate college without debt. She will fight to crack down on abusive lenders who take advantage of students. Erica will bring dollars in federal education funding back to Texas and never stopped working for good schools for our children no matter where they live and is going to fight to keep our neighborhood schools open. Job Training Erica Lee Carter’s top priority is the creation of good-paying jobs that provide everyone the opportunity to sustain their family. When elected Congresswoman, she is going to work to expand vocational and job skill training so that our young people and the unemployed can get trained, and created multiple opportunities to connect them to good-paying jobs. Health Care Erica Lee Carter believes all Americans should be able to afford to see a doctor. She will stand up AGAINST the Republican health care plan that would have kicked thousands of Texans off health insurance. Erica will fight to protect coverage for pre-existing conditions, expand access to affordable health care, and lower the cost of prescription drugs. She will continue to be instrumental in expanding the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and protecting Medicare and Medicaid benefits targeted by Republicans. She will work to pass legislation to prevent deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth.[4] |
” |
| —Erica Lee Carter’s campaign website (2024)[5] | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Notable endorsements
This section displays endorsements this individual made in elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope. Know of one we missed? Click here to let us know.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
|
Candidate U.S. House Texas District 18 |
Footnotes
- ↑ Erica Lee Carter Democrat for Congress Texas' 18th District, "About Erica," accessed October 16, 2024
- ↑ Congress.gov, "H.R.9495 - Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act," accessed February 13, 2025
- ↑ Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, "Roll Call 477," accessed May 15, 2025
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Erica Lee Carter’s campaign website, “Issues and Priorities,” accessed October 16, 2024
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sheila Jackson Lee (D) |
U.S. House Texas District 18 2024-2025 |
Succeeded by Sylvester Turner (D) |
| Preceded by - |
Harris County Department of Education Position 6, Precinct 1 2013-2018 |
Succeeded by - |
