Before running for office, she was a regional quality coordinator for a nonprofit public health organization and a teacher in the
Houston Independent School District. She was on a team that helped prepare a $21 billion education budget for
Eliot Spitzer when he was the
governor of New York. In 2011, Lee Carter filed to run for the first precinct of the Harris County Department of Education, explaining that her decision to run was partly inspired by her family's involvement in public service. She went into a runoff with
Jarvis Johnson, a former member of the
Houston City Council, but thousands of voters were prevented from casting ballots due to a county error. She won the Democratic Party primary runoff election, although Johnson planned legal action on behalf of the voters that were excluded by the error, and faced Juliette Bartlett-Pack in the general election, whom Lee Carter later defeated to become a trustee. In 2016, Lee Carter was a candidate to be a member of the Texas House of Representatives from the 146th district to replace
Borris Miles, who had been selected to replace
Rodney Ellis as a member of the
Texas Senate from the
14th district. However, she was defeated by
Shawn Thierry when the precinct chairs voted for the replacement. She later became a policy director for Ellis. == U.S. House of Representatives ==