Democrat Christian Menefee wins Texas House seat, narrowing GOP majority

Democrat Christian Menefee won a Texas U.S. House seat in a Saturday special election, narrowing Republicans’ already slim majority. Menefee, the Harris County attorney, prevailed in a runoff against Amanda Edwards, a former Houston City Council member. He will replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, a former Houston mayor, who died in March 2025. The seat representing the heavily Democratic Houston-based district has been vacant for nearly a year.

Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott didn’t schedule the first round of voting until November. Menefee and Edwards were the top vote-getters in a 16-candidate, all-parties primary. They advanced to a runoff because no candidate won a majority of the vote.

Democrats Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards were competing Saturday for a vacant U.S. House seat from Houston, a special election that will narrow the GOP's already slim House majority. Polls were closed in a runoff between Menefee, the Harris County attorney, and Edwards, a former Houston City Council member. The winner will replace the late Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner for the rest of his term, which ends when a new Congress is sworn in to office in January 2027.

Turner died in March 2025, but the first, all-parties primary for the special election didn’t occur until November under a schedule set by GOP Gov. Greg Abbott. Because no candidate won more than 50% of the vote, the contest moved to Saturday's runoff between the top two vote-getters. Abbott argued that Houston officials needed the six months between Turner’s death and the first round of voting to prepare for the special election. Democrats criticized the long wait as a move designed to give the GOP a slightly bigger cushion in the House for difficult votes. The 18th District is safely Democratic with minority residents making up most of the voters.

Edwards, 44, referenced the long vacancy in a video she posted to social media while campaigning Saturday, saying voters have gone too long without a voice in Washington.

“Today marks the day where you're finally going to get your voice back,” she said.

Menefee, 37, was endorsed by 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.

“I”m looking to bring a fight to Washington, D.C., and I need your help to do it,\" he said as he stood beside Crockett in a social media video.

Menefee ousted an incumbent in 2020 to become Harris County’s first Black county attorney, representing it in civil cases. He has joined legal challenges of President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration.

Edwards served four years on the Houston City 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. When Lee died that July, local Democrats narrowly nominated Turner over Edwards as Lee’s replacement.

Menefee finished ahead of Edwards in the primary. Edwards picked up the endorsement of the third-place finisher, state Rep. Jolanda Jones. Jones said Edwards had skills “best suited to go against Trump.”

After Saturday, yet another election lies ahead in little over a month. Both Menefee and Edwards are on the ballot again on March 3. They will face Democratic Rep. Al Green in another election. This one is a Democratic primary in a newly drawn 18th congressional district for the full term that starts in 2027.

GOP lawmakers who control Texas state government drew a new map last summer for this year’s midterms. This was pushed by Trump to create five more winnable seats for Republicans to help preserve their majority.

Winter weather added to voters' confusion. It forced local officials to cancel two days of advance voting this week. This prompted civil rights groups to go to court to win a two-day extension, into Thursday.