Democrat Christian Menefee wins election for the US House of Representatives, reducing the Republican Party
Democrat Christian Menefee won a U.S. House seat in Texas on Saturday in a special election that will reduce Republicans’ already slim majority, telling President Donald Trump that the Democratic district “overthrows corrupt presidencies.”
Menefee, the Harris County prosecutor, prevailed in a runoff against Amanda Edwards, a former Houston City Council member. He will replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, former mayor of Houston, who died in March 2025.
The seat representing the predominantly Democratic Houston-based district has been vacant for nearly a year.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott did not schedule the first round of voting until November. Menefee and Edwards were the top vote-getters in a 16-candidate all-party primary. They advanced to a runoff because no candidate received a majority of the votes.
Speaking to supporters at his victory party, Menefee vowed to fight for universal health insurance, try to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over the operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and “root out ICE.”
He also addressed Trump directly after noting that one of the district’s most prominent representatives, Democrat Barbara Jordan, was an eloquent voice in favor of impeaching President Richard Nixon before his resignation in 1974.
“The results here tonight are a mandate for me to work as hard as I can to oppose their agenda, fight the direction they are taking this country and investigate their crimes,” Menefee said.
Menefee will serve the remainder of Turner’s term, which ends when a new Congress takes office in January 2027.
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Abbott had argued that Houston officials needed the six months between Turner’s death and the first round of voting to prepare for the special election, but Democrats criticized the long wait as a measure designed to give the GOP a slightly larger cushion in the House for difficult votes.
While campaigning on Saturday, Edwards, 44, referenced the long vacancy in a video he posted on social media, saying voters have gone too long without a voice in Washington.
“Today is the day you will finally get your voice back,” he said.
Menefee, 37, received endorsements from several prominent Texas Democrats, including former Congressman Beto O’Rourke and Rep. Jasmine Crockett. He was joined Saturday by Crockett, who is running for the U.S. Senate.
Menefee ousted an incumbent in 2020 to become Harris County’s first Black prosecutor, representing it in civil cases, and has joined legal challenges to President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration.
Edwards served four years on the Houston City Council starting in 2016. She ran for the United States Senate in 2020, but finished fifth in a 12-person primary. She unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in the 2024 primary, and when Lee died in July, local Democrats narrowly nominated Turner over Edwards as Lee’s replacement.
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Menefee finished ahead of Edwards in the primary, but Edwards earned the endorsement of third-place state Rep. Jolanda Jones, who said Edwards had the skills “best suited to go against Trump.”
After Saturday, another election looms in just over a month. Both Menefee and Edwards will be on the ballot again on March 3, when they will face Democratic Rep. Al Green in another election, this time a Democratic primary in a newly drawn 18th Congressional District, for the full term that begins in 2027.
Republican lawmakers who control Texas state government drew a new map last summer for this year’s midterm elections, pushed by Trump to create five more seats that Republicans could win to help preserve their majority.
Winter weather added to voter confusion, forcing local officials to cancel two days of early voting this week, prompting a civil rights group to go to court to win a two-day extension, through Thursday.