Letitia Plummer
American politician
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Letitia L. Plummer is an American dentist and politician who served as a member of the Houston City Council representing the At-Large Position 4 from 2020 to 2025. She is the first Muslim woman to be elected to the council. In July 2025, she announced her campaign for County Judge of Harris County in 2026. Due to Texas's "resign to run" laws for local offices, she resigned her seat on the city council on July 8th, 2025, but remained in the position until Alejandra Salinas was elected in a December 2025 special election.[1][2]
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Letitia Plummer | |
|---|---|
Plummer in 2025 | |
| Member of Houston City Council from the at-large district Position 4 | |
| In office January 2, 2020 – December 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Amanda Edwards |
| Succeeded by | Alejandra Salinas |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Party | Democratic |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Spelman College (BA) Baylor College of Dentistry (DDS) |
Early life, education, and career
Plummer was born in Boston, Massachusetts[citation needed], to a Zanzibar-born Yemeni-Indian and Persian mother and an African American father. The two met while her father served in the Peace Corps. Her paternal grandfather was a civil rights lawyer who represented Muhammad Ali and U.S. Representative Mickey Leland was a family friend.[3]
The family moved to Houston in 1973 and she grew up in the Linkwood neighborhood, where Plummer graduated from the DeBakey High School for Health Professions. She went on to graduate from the historically black Spelman College, where she was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and then from the Baylor College of Dentistry.[3]
Plummer practiced dentistry with the Harris Health System then opened her own practice in 2001.[3] She currently has two offices in Pearland and Houston. She founded the nonprofit, Career Smiles, to repair people’s teeth when they are searching for jobs.[4]
Political career
Prior to running for public office, Plummer had worked on political campaigns, lobbied the Texas Legislature on adoption and surrogacy rights, and worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign as a fundraiser and was a member of its small business task force.[5]
Congressional campaigns
2018
Plummer ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, running for the Democratic nomination in Texas's 22nd congressional district. She placed second in the primary election behind by former diplomat Sri Preston Kulkarni, who defeated her in the primary runoff election.[5]
2024
Following Sheila Jackson Lee's death, Plummer sought the Harris County Democrat's nomination to replace her on the November 2024 general election ballot.[6] She was eliminated on the first round at the party's convention, placing third with 5 votes behind eventual winner Sylvester Turner and runner-up Amanda Edwards respectively.[7]
Houston City Council
Plummer ran for the Houston City Council's At-Large Position 4 in a 2019 special election to replace Amanda Edwards, who resigned to run for U.S. Senate in 2020. She advanced from the nonpartisan primary alongside Republican Anthony Dolcefino then narrowly defeated him in a run-off election with 51.9% of the vote.[4] She was sworn in on January 2, 2020, and became the first Muslim to serve in the body.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Plummer and other city councilmembers supported an emergency eviction grace period for tenants which mayor Sylvester Turner opposed.[8]
In 2022, Plummer voted against the city adopting ShotSpotter but later stated her support for the technology a year later.[9] She criticized Houston Metro board of directors' decision to postpone the METRORapid University Line in 2024.[10]
Due to Texas' resign-to-run law, Plummer automatically resigned from the council on July 8, 2025, but will serve in the position until a successor is named.[2] Plummer timed her campaign announcement to allow a special election to be held alongside the regularly scheduled 2025 Texas elections on November 4, avoiding the extra cost of a standalone election paid by the city.[11]
2026 Harris County Judge campaign
On July 8, 2025, Plummer officially announced her campaign for County Judge of Harris County in the 2026 elections. She stated she was running as a progressive, emphasizing disaster preparedness and securing infrastructure funding if elected.[12] She joins former mayor of Houston Annise Parker in the Democraticy primary race. Incumbent Judge Lina Hidalgo is retiring.[13]
Personal life
Plummer lives in Houston and is a practicing Muslim.[14] She has three sons and had a fourth via surrogacy in 2014; her ex-husband, an attorney, received full custody of the fourth during their divorce after never filing to give Plummer her parental rights.[3][15]
Her brother, Farouk, worked as an unpaid advisor in her council office until he had his credentials revoked for posting pictures of councilmembers' personal cars online when he alleged they had violated the Texas Open Meetings Act in 2020.[16]
Electoral history
2018
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Sri Preston Kulkarni | 9,466 | 31.8 | |
| Democratic | Letitia Plummer | 7,230 | 24.3 | |
| Democratic | Steve Brown | 6,246 | 21.0 | |
| Democratic | Margarita Ruiz Johnson | 3,767 | 12.7 | |
| Democratic | Mark Gibson | 3,046 | 10.2 | |
| Total votes | 29,755 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Sri Preston Kulkarni | 9,502 | 62.1 | |
| Democratic | Letitia Plummer | 5,794 | 37.9 | |
| Total votes | 15,296 | 100.0 | ||
2019
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony Dolcefino | 39,627 | 20.90 | |
| Letitia Plummer | 20,223 | 15.94 | |
| Nick Hellyar | 24,068 | 12.69 | |
| Ericka McCrutcheon | 21,195 | 11.18 | |
| Bill Baldwin | 20,276 | 10.69 | |
| Javier Gonzalez | 15,912 | 8.39 | |
| Jennifer Laney | 11,589 | 6.11 | |
| James "Joe" Joseph | 11,054 | 5.83 | |
| Jason Rowe | 6,347 | 3.35 | |
| Christel Bastida | 5,017 | 2.65 | |
| Tiko Hausman | 4,288 | 2.26 | |
| Total votes | 189,596 | 100.00% | |
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Letitia Plummer | 88,522 | 51.84 | |
| Anthony Dolcefino | 82,222 | 48.16 | |
| Total votes | 170,744 | 100.00% | |
2023
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Letitia Plummer | 93,894 | 47.97 | |
| Roy Morales | 65,046 | 33.23 | |
| Andrew "Drew" Patterson | 21,189 | 10.83 | |
| John Branch Jr. | 15,594 | 7.97 | |
| Total votes | 195,723 | 100.00% | |
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Letitia Plummer | 90,362 | 52.19 | |
| Roy Morales | 82,792 | 47.81 | |
| Total votes | 173,154 | 100.00% | |
2024
| 2024 Texas' 18th congressional district Democratic convention results[7] | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | First ballot | Second ballot | ||||||||||
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||||||||
| Sylvester Turner | 35 | 44.3% | 41 | 52.6% | ||||||||
| Amanda Edwards | 34 | 43.0% | 37 | 47.4% | ||||||||
| Letitia Plummer | 5 | 6.3% | Eliminated | |||||||||
| Christina Morales | 3 | 3.8% | Eliminated | |||||||||
| Jarvis Johnson | 2 | 2.5% | Eliminated | |||||||||
| Total | 79 | 100.0% | 78 | 100.0% | ||||||||