Andrew Schneider/Houston Public Media
Acting Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee and former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards will face each other in the special election runoff for Texas’ 18th Congressional District.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has scheduled the runoff date for the special election to complete the term of late U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner. The runoff will be held Saturday, Jan. 31, the governor announced Monday, with early voting running from Jan. 21-27.
Acting Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee and former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards, both Democrats, qualified for the runoff for the Texas 18th Congressional District special election. Menefee led the first round of voting Nov. 4, receiving 28.9% of the vote in a 16-candidate race, while Edwards placed second with 25.6%.
“The runoff gives both candidates a chance to be able to reset things,” University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus said, “and although Menefee comes in with a bit more momentum, it’s certainly the case that this is enough time for either candidate to be able to shine.”
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The Houston congressional district has been without representation in Washington since March 5, when Turner died at age 70.
Menefee and Edwards each had more than $300,000 in cash on hand as of the last campaign finance reporting deadline, well above most of their 14 rivals who failed to make the second round of voting.
“This does give you a chance to have additional mailers or to be able to do a longer digital ad run,” Rottinghaus said. “These are things that might make the marginal difference in a race that’s likely to have a pretty low turnout.”
Rottinghaus said that, if history is any guide, the turnout for the second round could be as low as 5% of registered voters.
“On the other hand, you do have a district that is hungry for representation, so a lot of that energy definitely is going to get put into voters’ attention, and that could lead to a slightly higher turnout than expected,” he said.
Whichever candidate emerges from the runoff will almost immediately be forced into a Democratic primary fight with one of the most senior members of the Texas congressional delegation.
U.S. Rep. Al Green, who has represented Texas’ 9th Congressional District for more than 20 years, has registered to run as a candidate in the 18th – having been moved into that district by Republican state lawmakers as part of a mid-decade round of redistricting. A coalition of civil rights groups is currently seeking a court injunction to block the redistricted map from taking effect.
“I think [Green] holds the cards now,” said Texas Southern University political scientist Michael O. Adams. “I think clearly given the long service he’s had … he starts at an advantage, and probably in terms of the fundraising, he may be favored there.”
Green’s latest campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission showed him with close to $600,000 in cash on hand.
Adams expressed concerns that the late date of the runoff, coming just a few weeks before the start of early voting for the March 2026 primary, could wind up creating problems for voters.
“I don’t want to call it voter fatigue, but we can say a kind of bewilderment, or it may end up to some confusion,” Adams said. “And I hope that it doesn’t lead to voters choosing to stay at home.”