Former Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee will serve out the remainder of former Rep. Sylvester Turner’s term after defeating former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards in a special runoff election Saturday, according to unofficial results.
The Associated Press called the race for Menefee as he led with 67% of the vote from early returns and half of Election Day voting centers.
The runoff ends the long wait for representation that Houstonians in the 18th Congressional District have endured since Turner died in March, just two months into his first term. Residents of the district have gone 11 months without a member of Congress, after Gov. Greg Abbott set the first round of the special election in November — to the chagrin of Democrats.
In that contest, Menefee and Edwards, both Democrats, finished atop a crowded field of 16 candidates, but neither came close to crossing the 50% threshold required to win outright, forcing them into Saturday’s runoff.
Once seated, Menefee will add another vote for House Democrats in a Republican-controlled House with historically tight margins. Republicans’ advantage will be cut to 218-214, meaning the GOP will only be able to afford one defection from its ranks on party-line votes.
Speaking onstage at his election night party, Menefee pledged to fight to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, “tear up ICE from the roots” and push to fix the U.S. immigration system. He also spoke directly to President Donald Trump.
“You’ve gone nearly a year without hearing from the people of the 18th Congressional District of Texas,” Menefee said. “The results here tonight are a mandate for me to work as hard as I can to oppose your agenda, to fight back against where you’re taking this country and to investigate your crimes. And I look forward to doing so.”
Menefee, 37, served as Harris County Attorney from 2021 to 2025. He received endorsements from much of Houston’s political class and popular Texas Democrats like Rep. Jasmine Crockett and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke. Menefee was also backed by Erica Lee Carter, the daughter of the district’s longtime representative, Sheila Jackson Lee, who died in 2024.
Known for opposing Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton in court during his tenure as the top civil lawyer for Texas’ largest county, Menefee has pledged to bring that same fighter mentality to Congress.
Turnout in the special runoff was abysmally low. Just 13,675 early votes and mail ballots were tallied, compared to 38,922 in the November special election.
The special election could be the beginning of a lengthy congressional career for Menefee — the 18th District sent Jackson Lee to Congress for nearly 30 years — or could be short-lived due to Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting.
In gerrymandering the state’s congressional map to yield more seats for the GOP, Republicans in the Legislature carved out a new red-leaning district in east Harris County. As a result, neighboring Democratic Rep. Al Green was drawn into the new iteration of the 18th Congressional District, which will only include about a quarter of its current residents.
Both Edwards and Menefee will be back on the ballot in front of a mostly different group of voters in March for a primary against Green in the redrawn version of the 18th District, which has sent some of the South’s most powerful Black Democrats to Congress.
Voters in the northeastern and southern portions of the current district — including downtown Houston, Third Ward and Kashmere Gardens — will get the chance to vote in the three-way primary. But voters in Acres Homes, the Heights, and Humble, among other areas, have been moved to different districts.
Early voting for the March primary, under the new lines, begins Feb. 17.
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