Garnet Coleman

Garnet Fredrick Coleman, a Democratic politician who represented Houston's Third Ward and surrounding neighborhoods in the Texas House of Representatives for more than three decades, died on September 23, 2026. He was 65 years old.

Born in Washington, D.C. on September 8, 1961, Coleman was raised in Houston, where his father, John B. Coleman, practiced medicine and where the family had deep roots in the Third Ward for generations. He was educated at Jack Yates High School, spent time at Howard University, and graduated cum laude from the University of St. Thomas in Houston in 1990. He later completed the Harvard University Senior Executive Program for State and Local Government.

Coleman was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in a special election in 1991 at age 29, and went on to represent District 147, covering Downtown Houston, Midtown, the Hobby Airport area, Sagemont and the Third Ward, until his retirement in February 2022. Over more than 30 years in Austin he built a reputation as one of the legislature's leading voices on health care and mental health policy. He was involved in creating Texas' Children's Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program in 1999 and later worked to expand enrollment by addressing administrative barriers, and he served as the House's lead writer on the health and human services section of the state budget across four legislative sessions, directing funding toward health coverage, mental health care and HIV and AIDS services. He also chaired the Texas Legislative Study Group House Caucus and the Texas Legislative Black Caucus during his career.

Outside the health portfolio, Coleman was a vocal advocate for his home neighborhood, pushing back against gentrification in the Third Ward and working through the Midtown Tax Increment Financing District to preserve land for low income housing. He argued that development should bring people into the existing fabric of a community rather than reshape it, a position that placed him at the center of Houston's long running debates over urban renewal.

Coleman's family announced his death, saying it was due to natural causes, and asked for privacy while he is remembered for his public service and his commitment to his family. Tributes from Texas political circles described him as a fixture of Houston's Third Ward and a lawmaker who spent his career fighting for health care access and for the neighborhood that raised him. Details of funeral or memorial arrangements have not yet been announced.