Texas Democrats Menefee and Edwards advance to runoff for vacant US House seat

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HOUSTON (AP) — Democrats Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards advanced to a runoff Tuesday night in a special election for a U.S. House seat that has been vacant since March and will narrow the GOP’s slim majority once a winner is sworn in.

Menefee, who currently serves as Harris County attorney, and Edwards, a former Houston City Council member, were the top vote-getters in a crowded field of 16 candidates. Neither received more than 50% of the vote, sending the race to a runoff that is expected early next year.

The winner is to serve out the remaining term of Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner, who died two months after taking office representing the deep-blue 18th Congressional District.

Following Turner’s death, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott defended not holding a special election until November by arguing that Houston election officials needed time to prepare. Democrats criticized the long wait and accused Abbott of trying to give his party’s House majority more cushion.

Menefee said his message for President Donald Trump and his allies is, “We’ve got one more election left, and then you’re going to have to see me.”

“For months, as this seat sat vacant, I heard from voters who were ready for someone willing to take on Donald Trump and the far right — not just talk about change, but deliver real results,” Menefee said.

Confusion has lingered over the election in the 18th Congressional District, where many residents will vote in a different district next year under a redrawn map demanded by President Donald Trump in an effort to increase the number of GOP seats.

Republicans currently hold a seven-seat majority in the House, 219-212, with four vacancies, including the Houston seat. Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva won a special election in September in a heavily Democratic district along the Mexico border, but she has not been sworn in yet. A narrower majority gives Republican leaders less room to maneuver.

“It’s not enough to me just for us to fight back against the attacks waged by our president,” Edwards said, speaking to supporters after polls closed. “We must do that and forge a path for our future.”

Menefee ousted an incumbent in 2020 to become Harris County's first Black county attorney, representing it in civil cases, and he has joined legal challenges of Trump's executive orders on immigration. He was endorsed by several prominent Texas Democrats including former congressman Beto O’Rourke and Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

Edwards served four years on the council starting in 2016. She ran for U.S. 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 that July, local Democrats narrowly nominated Turner over Edwards as Lee's replacement.

The current 18th District is solidly Democratic and spirals from northeast Houston through downtown, back up to northwest Houston and east again, until its two ends come close to forming a doughnut. Non-Hispanic whites make up about 23% of its voting-age citizens, though no single group has a majority.

The redrawn 18th stretches from suburbs southwest of Houston diagonally through the city and past its northeast limits. A little more than 50% of voting-age citizens are Black, which critics say is not a big enough majority for them to determine who gets elected.

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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.