A House Democrat running to become the next mayor of Houston, Texas, appeared in a campaign advertisement showing the wrong date.
The ad featuring Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), which Mediaite reported had made it to air in Houston television markets, encouraged supporters to vote on December 7 or earlier — even though the run-off election is set to take place on Saturday, December 9.
Sheila Jackson Lee is up with this TV ad in the general election runoff for #HoustonMayor — pic.twitter.com/DszWP4csPg
— Medium Buying (@MediumBuying) December 2, 2023
Angelica Luna-Kaufman, a spokesperson for Jackson Lee’s campaign, offered an explanation to local news outlet Chron.
“New ads were shipped out immediately. Once we were made aware we contacted our ad agency … and they made the change and immediately sent them out,” the spokesperson said, adding, “The news stations did not pull the commercial as we had requested.”
Jackson Lee and state senator John Whitmire, both Democrats, are set to face-off in the run-off this weekend. They took the top two spots in last month’s election. No one in a crowded field of more than a dozen candidates reached the 50% threshold to outright win and replace term-limited Mayor Sylvester Turner, who endorsed Jackson Lee in the run-off.
The botched ad featured comments from Jackson Lee explaining her background and top issues.
“Houston, I’ve spent my entire career fighting for you from fighting to keep our kids safe from guns when I was on city council, to my days in Congress fighting to protect women’s reproductive freedom and for funding for our police, schools, and small businesses,” Jackson Lee said.
“Now I’m running to be your mayor because if we’re going to bring down crime, fix our streets, and bring good-paying jobs here, then Houston needs a champion who is ready to fight for what is right. And I am,” she added.
In the run-up to the November election, Jackson Lee faced controversy with the release of a tape that allegedly contained audio of the congresswoman berating her staff. Jackson Lee responded with a statement conceding that she is “not perfect” and imploring voters to judge her at the polls based on her public service rather than “something trotted out by a political opponent that worked to exploit this, and backed by extreme Republican supporters.”