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WASHINGTON — Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee advanced to a runoff in Tuesday’s special election to fill the term of the late U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston.
With much of the Election Day vote outstanding, Menefee led the 16-candidate field with about 32% of the vote, running several points ahead of former Houston City Councilmember Amanda Edwards, who was in position to secure the second spot in the runoff with about 26% support.
State Rep. Jolanda Jones, D-Houston, trailed in third place with about 18% support but had yet to concede. No candidate was close to the 50% threshold needed to avert a runoff.
Menefee, Edwards and Jones are all Democrats, guaranteeing that the Houston-based seat will remain under Democratic control.
The results mean that Menefee will face either Edwards or Jones in another round of voting early next year — ensuring the 18th Congressional District, which has been empty since Turner died in early March, will remain vacant for at least a few more months. The winner of the runoff is only guaranteed the seat through the end of 2026, given that the office is immediately up for reelection next year.
Whichever Democrat emerges from the 18th District will shrink House Republicans’ already narrow majority once seated in Congress. Republicans currently hold a 219-213 advantage in the lower chamber, with an Arizona Democratic congresswoman-elect still waiting to be sworn in to a vacant seat.
The 18th Congressional District, anchored in downtown Houston, has sent storied Black legislators to Washington in the past, including Reps. Barbara Jordan, Sheila Jackson Lee and Turner. But its residents have spent over a year in limbo following the July 2024 death of Jackson Lee, the subsequent anointing of Turner as the Harris County Democratic Party’s preferred candidate and then Turner’s death two months after his swearing-in. The special election attracted a cadre of mostly younger Black candidates to succeed him. Edwards is 43 and Menefee is 37.
The special election, and the runoff, are taking place under the old boundaries of the 18th District, before Republicans redrew them as part of a mid-cycle redistricting effort this summer. After the runoff, Edwards, Jones or Menefee will then need to make a quick decision about whether to run in the March 3 Democratic primary for the district — the real contest in this deep-blue seat. There, they’ll have to fight all over again and may face a similar line up of challengers and perhaps some more formidable ones.
Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, currently represents the 9th Congressional District. But Republicans drew him out of his seat and transformed it into an east Houston and Liberty County-based seat that would have voted for President Donald Trump by 20 percentage points last year. Green, 78, now lives in the new 18th Congressional District, as do the majority of his constituents. He has heavily hinted that he plans to run in the new 18th Congressional District.
In a speech to supporters Tuesday night, Menefee announced that he would run in the 2026 primary, without addressing the prospect of facing Green.
“We’re in first place tonight, and tonight is a time for celebration,” Menefee said. “But we have another journey ahead of us. We have another race. And I think what we learned from this first round of voting is that the community is with us overwhelmingly.”