Top Brandon Johnson adviser lives in Chicago, but cast November vote in Houston

Jason Lee, a senior adviser for Mayor Brandon Johnson, said Friday he cast his November presidential election vote in Texas — even though he lives in Chicago — to honor a pledge to his late mother, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.

He was in Houston in November so that he could carry out that promise and vote for his sister, Erica Lee Carter, who was running for the vacant congressional seat created by the death of Jackson Lee.

Lee said he lives downtown, abides by the residency rule requiring city employees to live in Chicago, and offered to produce the lease and utility bills to prove it.

But he added his hometown is Houston, Texas where his father and sister still live and where his mother, a civil rights leader, served as a longtime member of Congress before dying of pancreatic cancer in mid-July.

Carter captured the seat that her mother held for 29 years with 69.3% of the vote.

“I’m allowed to vote in Texas per Texas voter law," Lee said. "The voter law says that if your separation from the state is temporary, you’re allowed to vote…I don’t have to live there every day. I just have to say that my absence is temporary and there’s no time limit put on temporary.”

“If you look at my life over the last ten years, I’ve been in two places: Chicago and Texas. Texas is my home. It’s where my family is from. The house that I inherit is there," Lee added. " I had to travel back and forth there in 2023 when I was running the election…. Plenty of people vote in different cities. You can have two residences and vote in whichever city you choose, as long as you’re in compliance with state law. What you can’t do is vote in two places at the same time.”

The Chicago Tribune first reported that Lee voted in person in Houston last month.

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) sent a letter Friday to city Inspector General Deborah Witzburg asking her to investigate Lee's actions. Lopez stated that Texas residents living temporarily outside of the state can vote in Texas elections if they have not established legal residency elsewhere. Lee, however, says he conforms with the city of Chicago's residency requirement for employees.

"This is inexcusable behavior from someone in a senior leadership role within the current administration," Lopez wrote.

Lee bristled at any suggestion that he was somehow violating the city's residency rule.

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“Do you have a residence in Chicago? Do you pay a utility? Do you have a lease? Can we confirm that you go to sleep every night and wake up in Chicago. The answer is, `Yes, yes, yes yes.’ I live right downtown," Lee said.

Lee became emotional when asked why was it so important to him to cast his November vote in Houston and not Chicago.

“My mother died. And I promised her that I would vote for my sister…I wanted to honor her legacy by voting for my sister,” he said. After the election, Lee flew to Washington D.C. to attend his sister’s swearing-in ceremony on Capitol Hill.