The long wait to fill the vacancy in Texas’ 18th Congressional District is coming to an end Saturday. That’s when voters in the Houston district will make their final choices between two Democrats, former Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee and former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards, in a special election runoff.
A total of 68 polling locations across Harris County will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday.
The congressional seat, which has been held by a Black Democrat since the early 1970s, has been vacant since U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner died last March at age 70. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott waited until April to set the special election date for November, citing concerns about past problems with Harris County’s elections as his main reason for the delay. Many political analysts have suggested another possible motive: Abbott’s desire to help his fellow Republicans maintain their narrow advantage in the U.S. House of Representatives for as long as possible.
Sixteen candidates – a mix of Democrats, Republicans and independents – vied for the opportunity to fill Turner’s seat during the Nov. 4 special election. No candidate garnered the 50% plus one vote needed to avoid a runoff. Menefee and Edwards emerged as the top two vote getters – Menefee with 28.9% of the vote and Edwards with 25.6%.
More than 13,000 votes were cast during the early voting period for the runoff. After polling locations were closed Sunday and Monday because a winter storm hit the Houston region and much of Texas, a judge in Harris County extended early voting to include Wednesday and Thursday, when provisional ballots were cast.
Whoever wins Saturday’s runoff will complete Turner’s unexpired term, which is set to end in January 2027. And they’ll immediately be forced to defend the seat in a contested Democratic primary that includes U.S. Rep. Al Green, currently serving as the incumbent congressman for Texas’ 9th Congressional District. Green’s home and much of his constituency were shifted into the 18th District by the Republican-led Texas state Legislature as part of a mid-decade redistricting last summer.
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