Democrat Christian Menefee received a Texas U.S. Home seat in a particular election Saturday that may slim Republicans’ already-slim majority, telling President Donald Trump that the Democratic district “topples corrupt presidencies.”
Menefee, the Harris County legal professional, prevailed in a runoff in opposition to Amanda Edwards, a former Houston Metropolis Council member. He’ll substitute the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, a former Houston mayor, who died in March 2025.
The seat representing the closely Democratic Houston-based district has been vacant for almost a yr.
Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott didn’t schedule the primary spherical of voting till November. Menefee and Edwards had been the highest vote-getters in a 16-candidate, all-parties main. They superior to a runoff as a result of no candidate received a majority of the vote.
Chatting with supporters at his victory occasion, Menefee promised to battle for common medical health insurance, search to question Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations and “tear ICE up from the roots.”
He additionally addressed Trump straight after noting that one of many district’s most storied representatives, Democrat Barbara Jordan, was an eloquent voice for President Richard Nixon’s impeachment forward of his 1974 resignation.
“The outcomes right here tonight are a mandate for me to work as laborious as I can to oppose your agenda, to battle again in opposition to the place you’re taking this nation and to analyze your crimes,” Menefee stated.
Menefee will fill the rest of Turner’s time period, which ends when a brand new Congress is sworn in to workplace in January 2027.
Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers through Getty Photos
Abbott had argued that Houston officers wanted the six months between Turner’s dying and the primary spherical of voting to arrange for the particular election, however Democrats criticized the lengthy wait as a transfer designed to present the GOP a barely larger cushion within the Home for troublesome votes.
Whereas campaigning Saturday, Edwards, 44, referenced the lengthy emptiness in a video she posted to social media, saying voters have gone too lengthy and not using a voice in Washington.
“At present marks the day the place you’re lastly going to get your voice again,” she stated.
Menefee, 37, was endorsed by a number of distinguished Texas Democrats together with former congressman Beto O’Rourke and Rep. Jasmine Crockett. He was joined Saturday by Crockett, who’s working for the U.S. Senate.
Menefee ousted an incumbent in 2020 to grow to be Harris County’s first Black county legal professional, representing it in civil instances, and he has joined authorized challenges of President Donald Trump’s govt orders on immigration.
Edwards served 4 years on the Houston Metropolis Council beginning in 2016. She ran for U.S. Senate in 2020 however completed fifth in a 12-person main. She unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee within the 2024 main, and when Lee died that July, native Democrats narrowly nominated Turner over Edwards as Lee’s substitute.
Menefee completed forward of Edwards within the main, however Edwards picked up the endorsement of the third-place finisher, state Rep. Jolanda Jones, who stated Edwards had abilities “greatest suited to go in opposition to Trump.”
After Saturday, yet one more election lies forward in little over a month. Each Menefee and Edwards are on the poll once more on March 3, when they’ll face Democratic Rep. Al Inexperienced in one other election — this one a Democratic main in a newly drawn 18th congressional district, for the total time period that begins in 2027.
GOP lawmakers who management Texas state authorities drew a brand new map final summer season for this yr’s midterms, pushed by Trump to create 5 extra winnable seats for Republicans to assist protect their majority.
Winter climate added to voters’ confusion, forcing native officers to cancel two days of advance voting this week, prompting civil rights group to go to court docket to win a two-day extension, into Thursday.