WASHINGTON — Democratic Reps. Al Green and Christian Menefee are headed to a runoff election of their bids for Texas’ newly redrawn 18th Congressional District.
Neither gained greater than 50% of the vote in Tuesday night time’s major election. Menefee led Green by about 2 proportion factors, however fell in need of successful outright as two different Democratic contenders pulled votes from him and Green. The two congressmen will now face one another within the runoff election on May 26.
This congressional seat is safely Democraticso whoever wins the runoff will nearly actually win the final election in November.
Green, 78, has been in Congress since 2005. He presently represents the ninth Congressional District, however after Republicans pushed by means of partisan redistricting final yr, it bumped him into the brand new 18th Congressional District.
Menefee, 37, gained a January particular election on this district’s outdated boundaries to complete out the time period began by the late Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner, who died in March 2025.
Their race was a check of voters’ starvation for generational change in Congress.
Menefee, who was beforehand the Harris County legal professional, informed NBC News final week he hasn’t been targeted on Green’s age “at all,” and is able to struggle on points like affordability and defending democracy.
But he additionally solid himself as “the person to carry this district into the future,” and claimed he’s “the only candidate in the race” who has stood as much as the Trump administration.
Green has campaigned on his seniority in Congressand his document on civil rights and voting protections. And in case you didn’t assume he had it in him to face as much as Trump, the Texas congressman bought ejected from the president’s State of the Union handle final Tuesday for strolling round with a big signal that learn, “Black People Aren’t Apes.”
His signal was a protest of a racist, AI-generated video Trump shared in early February on social media depicting former President Barack Obama and former first girl Michelle Obama as monkeys.
Heading into Tuesday’s elections, Menefee had raised much more cash than Green. He’d introduced in additional than $2.6 million and had about $130,000 money readily available as of Feb. 11, per his FEC filings. Green raised about $940,000 and had about $539,000 money readily available throughout the identical interval, per his FEC experiences.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/al-green-christian-menefee-texas-democratic-primary_n_69a77003e4b0c9c664adb24e