Democrat Christian Menefee Wins Election For U.S. House, Narrowing GOP’s Slim Majority | EUROtoday

Democrat Christian Menefee received a Texas U.S. House seat in a particular election Saturday that may slender Republicans’ already-slim majority, telling President Donald Trump that the Democratic district “topples corrupt presidencies.”

Menefee, the Harris County lawyer, prevailed in a runoff in opposition to Amanda Edwards, a former Houston City Council member. He will change the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, a former Houston mayor, who died in March 2025.

The seat representing the closely Democratic Houston-based district has been vacant for practically a yr.

Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott didn’t schedule the primary spherical of voting till November. Menefee and Edwards have been the highest vote-getters in a 16-candidate, all-parties main. They superior to a runoff as a result of no candidate received a majority of the vote.

Speaking to supporters at his victory get together, Menefee promised to struggle for common medical health insurance, search to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations and “tear ICE up from the roots.”

He additionally addressed Trump instantly after noting that one of many district’s most storied representatives, Democrat Barbara Jordan, was an eloquent voice for President Richard Nixon’s impeachment forward of his 1974 resignation.

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

Menefee will fill the rest of Turner’s time period, which ends when a brand new Congress is sworn in to workplace in January 2027.

Abbott had argued that Houston officers wanted the six months between Turner’s loss of life and the primary spherical of voting to arrange for the particular election, however Democrats criticized the lengthy wait as a transfer designed to offer the GOP a barely larger cushion within the House for troublesome votes.

While campaigning Saturday, Edwards, 44, referenced the lengthy emptiness in a video she posted to social media, saying voters have gone too lengthy with out a voice in Washington.

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

Menefee, 37, was endorsed by a number of outstanding Texas Democrats together with former congressman Beto O’Rourke and Rep. Jasmine Crockett. He was joined Saturday by Crockett, who’s working for the U.S. Senate.

Menefee ousted an incumbent in 2020 to develop into Harris County’s first Black county lawyer, representing it in civil circumstances, and he has joined authorized challenges of President Donald Trump’s government orders on immigration.

Edwards served 4 years on the Houston City Council beginning in 2016. She ran for U.S. Senate in 2020 however completed fifth in a 12-person main. She unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee within the 2024 main, and when Lee died that July, native Democrats narrowly nominated Turner over Edwards as Lee’s substitute.

Menefee completed forward of Edwards within the main, however Edwards picked up the endorsement of the third-place finisher, state Rep. Jolanda Jones, who stated Edwards had expertise “best suited to go against Trump.”

After Saturday, yet one more election lies forward in little over a month. Both Menefee and Edwards are on the poll once more on March 3, when they’ll face Democratic Rep. Al Green in one other election — this one a Democratic main in a newly drawn 18th congressional district, for the complete time period that begins in 2027.

GOP lawmakers who management Texas state authorities drew a brand new map final summer season for this yr’s midterms, pushed by Trump to create 5 extra winnable seats for Republicans to assist protect their majority.

Winter climate added to voters’ confusion, forcing native officers to cancel two days of advance voting this week, prompting civil rights group to go to court docket to win a two-day extension, into Thursday.