



Democratic candidate for U.S. House in Texas
Who will win the Special Election for TX-18?
Candidate standings
Live market pricing for the leading candidates in this election.
Current prediction-market probability for the candidate, updated as market prices change.
1%chance to win
Key details about the candidate’s background, party, office sought and current campaign.
Current roleState Representative
PartyDemocratic
Political ideologyProgressive Democrat
Age60 years old (Nov 6, 1965)
GenderFemale
LocationTexas
BackgroundAttorney
EducationUniversity of Houston (BA, Political Science)
Notable personal detailsJolanda Felicia "Jo" Jones is an American attorney and Democratic politician from Houston, Texas. She has served in the Texas House of Representatives for District 147 since 2022 and previously served as a Houston City Council at-large member and a Houston ISD trustee. Jones is also known for her background as a competitive track-and-field athlete (heptathlon) and for appearances in television.
Supports expanding social and economic programs (e.g., Medicaid expansion, raising the minimum wage) and emphasizes strengthening funding for public services and economic development for small and minority‑owned businesses rather than tax cuts. No explicit campaign statements advocating major tax cuts or large-scale tax reductions were found.
Supports expanding access to affordable health care, protecting and expanding Medicaid (including coverage extensions for new mothers and babies), lowering prescription drug costs, and preserving reproductive health care access. Opposes cuts to Medicaid and aims to expand healthcare coverage and affordability.
The candidate opposes criminalizing migrants for illegal border crossings and criticized legislation that would increase state-level penalties and enforcement against people from the southern border, describing such measures as racially discriminatory. Her public statements emphasize protecting migrants from punitive state policies and defending immigration as part of the nation’s founding.
Supports codifying and restoring abortion rights and opposes politicians restricting access to abortion; describes herself as a champion for abortion care and women’s reproductive decision-making.
No clear policy positions on climate or energy are articulated in the candidate’s campaign or official biography; her campaign emphasizes infrastructure and resilient communities and criticizes Republican handling of power outages but does not set out specific climate targets, fossil-fuel or clean-energy policies. Available public materials focus on health care, education, public safety and economic development rather than detailed climate or energy policy.
Supports comprehensive gun-safety reforms including measures such as red flag laws, raising the purchase age for assault-style rifles, closing the gun-show loophole, and local gun buyback programs to reduce firearms in communities. She frames these policies as necessary responses to rising gun violence and opposes recent permissive Texas carry laws.
Recent polling results and the candidate's current average in the race.
Jolanda Jones currently averages 26.0%, ranking third in this race, 17.0 points behind the next candidate.
Average recalculated from polls through Oct 7 - 11.



Aggregation source: FiftyPlusOne
Campaign finance totals from the latest available reporting period.
2026
LatestCycle 2026
Source: FEC
New updates coming soon
We're monitoring and will update when new data impacts the race.