{"id":196410,"date":"2025-09-03T08:59:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T08:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/196410\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T08:59:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T08:59:10","slug":"rep-alma-allen-longtime-houston-democratic-lawmaker-to-retire-from-texas-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/196410\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Alma Allen, longtime Houston Democratic lawmaker, to retire from Texas House"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for The Brief<\/a>, The Texas Tribune\u2019s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.\n<\/p>\n

Rep. Alma Allen<\/a>, D-Houston, announced on Tuesday she would not seek reelection after 20 years in the Texas House and endorsed her son, former State Board of Education member Lawrence Allen, Jr., to succeed her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I left the world a little better than when I found it,\u201d Allen, 86, said on the House floor, surrounded by nearly every member in the chamber. \u201cMy legacy to you is love. Love one another. There\u2019s some brains in this room \u2014 lots of good brains, lots of good ideas. And when we all put them together, what a wonderful world this will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before her 11-term tenure in the Texas House, Allen served on the State Board of Education for over 10 years. She began her career in education as a teacher and later school principal in the Houston Independent School District. She retired from Houston ISD after 39 years, then became an adjunct professor at Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M University.<\/p>\n

After her decades-long career as an educator, Allen devoted much of her time in the Legislature to public education issues, spending each of her last nine terms on the House Public Education Committee and thrice serving as the panel\u2019s vice chair.<\/p>\n

Allen announced on Tuesday her \u201cretirement from everything,\u201d to laughs. She said she would finish out her term through next year and go on to help young people run for office \u2014 including Lawrence Allen, Jr. in his 2026 run for the now-open House District 131<\/a> in south and southwest Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to pass the torch to a new generation, and I totally intend to pass my seat onto my son,\u201d Alma Allen said Tuesday. \u201cYou will meet him real soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s colleagues surrounded and applauded her as she announced her retirement. She was introduced and lauded by other Black women lawmakers, including her mentee, Rep. Rhetta Bowers<\/a>, D-Rowlett.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe honor and celebrate an extraordinary career of a woman whose legacy will forever echo through the halls of the Texas House of Representatives,\u201d Bowers said, adding that when she was first elected to office, Allen showed her where the restroom was, complimented her dress but warned she would be cold on the famously chilly House floor and taught her how to put lunch money on her account. \u201cThank you for being my mentor.\u201d<\/p>\n

First elected to the Legislature in 2004, Allen is tied for the 11th longest-tenured member of the Texas House, and the sixth most senior member among Democrats.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Prairie View A&M University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More all-star speakers confirmed for The Texas Tribune Festival, Nov. 13\u201315! This year\u2019s lineup just got even more exciting with the addition of State Rep. Caroline Fairly<\/strong>, R-Amarillo; former United States Attorney General Eric Holder<\/strong>; Abby Phillip<\/strong>, anchor of \u201cCNN NewsNight\u201d; Aaron Reitz<\/strong>, 2026 Republican candidate for Texas Attorney General; and State Rep. James Talarico<\/strong>, D-Austin. Get your tickets today!<\/a><\/p>\n

TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune\u2019s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":196411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[7373,108776,4345,80,5528,358,67811,7376,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-196410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-2026-elections","9":"tag-alma-a-allen","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-state-government","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-house-of-representatives","15":"tag-texas-legislature","16":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115139548007694070","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}