Democrat Christian Menefee on Saturday won a special election runoff for Texas’s 18th Congressional District, narrowing House Republicans’ slim majority by securing a long vacant seat in a heavily Democratic area.
Menefee defeated fellow Democrat Amanda Edwards, the Associated Press reported, winning a Houston-area district briefly held by Democrat Sylvester Turner before his death last March. When Menefee is sworn in, Democrats will have 214 House seats. Republicans currently hold 218, giving House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) a razor-thin margin for error in key votes.
Because the Texas contest was down to two Democrats, the effect on the balance of power has been long anticipated. Special elections coming later this year to fill vacancies in Georgia, New Jersey, and California could further alter the partisan breakdown of the chamber.
Control of the House is the marquee prize in November’s midterm elections. Democrats, buoyed by strong performances in last fall’s elections, are hoping to capitalize on anger with President Donald Trump’s agenda to retake the chamber. Republicans are hoping to defy recent political trends and hold onto their power.
In Texas, the midterms are set to be contested under a new House map backed by Trump that state GOP leaders enacted last year. Both Menefee, a former Harris County attorney, and Edwards, an attorney and former Houston City council member, will immediately move to an unusual intraparty contest in a newly redrawn district against longtime Rep. Al Green (D). Texas will hold its primaries on March 3.
Residents of Texas’s 18th District are now set to have representation in the House through the end of Turner’s term after nearly a year of vacancy. For months, Texas Democrats had accused Gov. Greg Abbott (R) of deliberately delaying the special election to fill the vacant seat to help Republicans maintain a slim majority. Abbott blamed Harris County for election administration issues, saying he had to schedule the election for late last year to give officials there time to prepare.
The 18th district, which covers much of central Harris County, has a predominantly Black and Latino population. The district has been a Democratic stronghold for decades, and has been represented by civil rights leaders such as the late Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Barbara Jordan.
Throughout his campaign, Menefee touted himself as a fighter with a record of suing the Trump administration, focusing heavily on health care, voting rights, and federal funding to the district.
Saturday’s runoff took place because no candidate won a majority of the vote in the November special election. Menefee was the top vote getter then, with roughly 29 percent of the vote, while Edwards finished second with roughly 26 percent.
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