Democrat Christian Menefee wins election to the US House of Representatives in Texas, narrowing the GOP’s slim majority

Democrat Christian Menefee won a US House of Representatives seat from Texas in a special election on Saturday that will narrow the already thin Republican majority, telling President Donald Trump that the Democratic district was “throwing out corrupt presidencies.”

Read more: Texas Democrat Taylor Rahmat flips the Republican Senate seat that Trump won by 17 points

Menefee, the Harris County district attorney, won a runoff against Amanda Edwards, a former Houston City Council member. He will replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, the former mayor of Houston, who died in March 2025.

The seat representing Houston’s heavily Democratic district has been vacant for nearly a year.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has not scheduled the first round of voting until November. Minifie and Edwards were among the top vote-getters in the 16-candidate all-party primary. They advanced to a runoff because no candidate won a majority of the votes.

Speaking to supporters at a victory party, Menefee promised to fight for universal health insurance, seek the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over US Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations and “rip ICE down to the roots.”

He also addressed Trump directly after noting that one of the district’s most famous representatives, Democrat Barbara Jordan, was an eloquent voice in the impeachment of President Richard Nixon before his 1974 resignation.

“The results here tonight are a mandate for me to work as hard as I can to oppose your agenda, fight against where you are leading this country, and investigate your crimes,” Menefee said.

Menefee will serve the remainder of Turner’s term, which ends when the new Congress is sworn in in January 2027.

Abbott had argued that Houston officials needed six months between Turner’s death and the first round of voting to prepare for the special election, but Democrats criticized the long wait as a move aimed at giving the GOP a slightly bigger cushion in the House for tough votes.

While campaigning on Saturday, Edwards, 44, pointed out the long vacancy in a video she posted on social media, saying voters had spent too long without a voice in Washington. She later told supporters at her watch party that the race “wasn’t about winning a particular seat.”

“This journey has always been about creating a community where every person in it, no matter their background, no matter where they’re from, no matter where they live, has the opportunity to thrive,” she said. “That means access to health care. That means education. That means the economy.”

Menefee, 37, has been endorsed by several prominent Texas Democrats, including former Congressman Beto O’Rourke and Rep. Jasmine Crockett. He was joined on Saturday by Crockett, who is running for U.S. Senate.

Menefee ousted an incumbent in 2020 to become Harris County’s first Black attorney, representing it in civil cases, and has joined legal challenges to 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. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson unsuccessfully challenged Lee in the 2024 primary, and when Lee died that July, local Democrats narrowly nominated Turner over Edwards as Lee’s replacement.

Menifee finished ahead of Edwards in the primary, but Edwards received the endorsement of the third-place finisher, state Rep. Jolanda Jones, who said Edwards had skills “best suited to take on Trump.”

After Saturday, another election awaits us in just over a month. Both Minifie and Edwards will be on the ballot again on March 3, when they will face Democratic Rep. Al Green in another election — this one a Democratic primary in the newly drawn 18th Congressional District, for the full term beginning in 2027.

GOP lawmakers who control Texas state government drew a new map last summer for this year’s midterm elections, pushed by Trump to create five more seats that Republicans could win to help maintain their majority.

Winter weather added to voter confusion, forcing local officials to cancel two days of advance voting this week, prompting the civil rights group to go to court for a two-day extension, through Thursday.