40 Facts About Sylvester Turner

Sylvester Turner was born on September 27,1954 and is an American attorney and politician who is serving as the 62nd mayor of Houston, Texas.

Sylvester Turner attended the University of Houston and Harvard Law School.

Sylvester Turner ran for mayor of Houston in 1991, losing in the runoff election to Bob Lanier.

Sylvester Turner lost again in 2003, coming in third and thus missing the runoff.

Sylvester Turner won the 2015 election, defeating Bill King in the runoff by 4,082 votes out of 212,696 votes cast in the closest mayoral election in Houston history by percentage.

Sylvester Turner was born on September 27,1954, in Houston, Texas, as the sixth of nine children, and was raised in the Acres Homes community in northwest Houston by his father, a commercial painter, and his mother, a maid at the Rice Hotel.

Sylvester Turner was senior class president and valedictorian at Klein High School.

Sylvester Turner was a finalist in the Ames Moot Court Competition while obtaining a JD degree from Harvard Law School.

Sylvester Turner is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Sylvester Turner has served as an adjunct professor at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, and as a seminar lecturer at the South Texas College of Law and the University of Houston Law School's Continuing Legal Education Programs.

Sylvester Turner was admitted to practice in the State of Texas, federal District Court for the Southern District Court of Texas and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sylvester Turner is a member of the State Bar of Texas, American Bar Association, National Bar Association, Houston Lawyers Association, and the Houston Bar Association.

Sylvester Turner served as an immigration lawyer for many years in Houston.

In 1984, Sylvester Turner ran for Harris County Commissioner, Precinct 1 in the Democratic primary, but lost to El Franco Lee.

Sylvester Turner sued Dolcefino and KTRK and was initially awarded a $5.5 million libel settlement that was reduced to $3.25 million by the presiding judge.

Sylvester Turner chaired the Texas Legislative Black Caucus and the Greater Houston Area Legislative Delegation.

Sylvester Turner has supported policies to attract doctors to underserved areas, proposed a measure increasing state funding for mental health services in Harris County from $32 million to $200 million, and worked to increase funds for legal aid for poor Texans.

In February 2020, Sylvester Turner endorsed Michael Bloomberg in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.

In 2016, Sylvester Turner voiced his support for stricter laws regulating Uber and other ridesharing services.

In 2015, Sylvester Turner was named one of the top 10 best members of the Texas House on LGBT issues by Equality Texas with an "A+" rating, after Sylvester Turner said he had "evolved" on LGBT issues.

Sylvester Turner, while running against Bill King in the 2015 Houston mayoral runoff election, stated he is "100 percent" committed to reenacting Houston Equal Rights Ordinance and attacked Bill King for saying he won't revisit the issue of HERO, along with his support from the Campaign for Houston.

In 1999, Sylvester Turner voted to restructure the electric utility industry in Texas to allow customers competition and consumer choice.

Sylvester Turner voted to allow the Public Utility Commission to issue emergency cease-and-desist orders, without first going to a court, to companies whose actions threaten the state's electricity supply.

Sylvester Turner co-authored a bill to help ensure persons living in multi-family residences are alerted when their electricity bill has not been paid.

In 2011, Sylvester Turner voted against a measure that would have implemented a 6 percent cut to education funding for all schools in Texas, a move that equated to a $4 billion education funding cut.

Sylvester Turner opposed a corporate tax break that many legislators, in the Texas House of Representatives, believed would hurt public school funding.

Sylvester Turner has responded to the criticism by pointing out the logistics of evacuating "6.5 million" people and the deaths and traffic that occurred during the 2005 Hurricane Rita evacuation.

Sylvester Turner warned fellow legislators about the potential backlash from constituents if the state chose not to expand Medicaid, which promised a significant return on the state's investment.

Sylvester Turner passed legislation in 2015 that will free up funding for medical trauma care centers, which have not received the full amount of funds designated to be spent specifically on trauma centers.

Sylvester Turner is a regular attendee of various public health programs, including contributions to Covid-19 safety and community-based health care.

Sylvester Turner has long been an advocate for abortion rights.

Sylvester Turner voted against a measure requiring doctors to perform a sonogram on women seeking an abortion at least 24 hours before the procedures.

Sylvester Turner has fought to protect funding for family planning programs and Planned Parenthood.

Sylvester Turner voted against a Senate version of a measure that banned abortions after 20 weeks and tightened standards on abortion clinics, and authored an amendment to the bill that would have required the state to pay the costs abortion clinics would incur on the measure to retrofit facilities so they could be certified as surgical centers.

On gun control, Sylvester Turner opposed measures to limit lawsuits against gun or ammunition manufacturers, allowing concealed handguns on higher education campuses, and rescinding the authority of local governments to ban concealed weapons on public property.

Sylvester Turner opposed measures that would reduce the number of training hours required to receive a concealed handgun license.

Sylvester Turner supported a bill that prohibited the use of state funds for the enforcement of federal firearms regulations.

Sylvester Turner advocated abandoning the "pick-a-pal system", where judges appoint commissioners who then can pick whoever they want to serve on grand juries.

Sylvester Turner was married to Cheryl Turner from 1983 to 1991, and they have one daughter, Ashley Paige Turner.

In November 2022, Sylvester Turner disclosed that during the summer he had been diagnosed with bone cancer, for which he had surgery and received six weeks of radiation treatment.