polling the highest<\/a> – has earned a wave of major endorsements including support from the family of the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. But Menefee says those endorsements don\u2019t make him the \u2018establishment candidate.\u2019<\/p>\nChristian Menefee says he\u2019s \u201cfighting for the soul of our country\u201d in race for Houston\u2019s 18th District seat. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I don\u2019t consider myself an establishment candidate at all,\u201d Menefee said in an interview with KPRC 2\u2019s Rilwan Balogun. \u201cWhen I ran for county attorney in 2020, I ran against a three-term incumbent. Everybody told me I didn\u2019t have a snowball\u2019s chance in hell of winning that race. I didn\u2019t have a single elected official endorsement, and I still won with 50% of the vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
His campaign website shows a who\u2019s who of Harris County and Houston elected leaders such as County Judge Lina Hidalgo, Commissioners Rodney Ellis and Lesley Briones, and recently, outspoken Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done the real work and when you come to people, and you say \u2018I\u2019ve done the real working and now I\u2019m asking for your support to go off and do the real work in D.C.\u2019 What I\u2019ve seen is that those conversations are pretty straightforward. I know you, I know your work, I believe in you and I\u2019m happy to support you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Raised in the 18th District by military parents, Menefee says his family\u2019s experience using federal programs, from military health benefits to Pell Grants, shaped his belief in government as a force for opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m running because it was a thoughtful, compassionate, helpful government that gave me my fair shot at the American dream,\u201d Menefee said. \u201cWhen I was growing up, there were many nights I wouldn\u2019t have eaten were it not for the WIC [Women, Infants, and Children] program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menefee says he wants to ensure that same sense of opportunity reaches everyone in the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m running to make sure everyone in our community has health care and that all of our neighborhoods have sidewalks that lead to grocery stores, not just corner stores,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Top issues: Health Care, cost of living, environmental justice<\/p>\n
Menefee says the three biggest issues facing the 18th District are health care, cost of living, and environmental justice.<\/p>\n
As county attorney, he\u2019s made environmental protection a focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been fighting against concrete batch plants and addressing cancer cluster issues,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are too many communities that have high rates of asthma and COPD, that have lower life expectancies. We can\u2019t accept that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the rising cost of living, Menefee says he wants to reverse recent changes to SNAP benefits that take effect November 1.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Congress passed the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act\u201d (OBBBA), a sweeping law that, among other things, reshapes who qualifies for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The biggest changes center around work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents, known as ABAWDs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 18th District has the largest number of SNAP beneficiaries of any district in Texas,\u201d he said. \u201cThe cuts are horrific. I\u2019m committed to doing everything I can to get that funding restored and to expand social safety net programs.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds that if Democrats regain control of Congress after 2026, they\u2019ll have a chance to go beyond blocking Republican-led initiatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want folks to have health care, to have SNAP benefits, to have down payment assistance, to be able to go to college for free,\u201d Menefee said. \u201cI\u2019m committed to using our federal tax dollars to help people, not corporations.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the government shutdown enters its fourth week, Menefee says he supports the approach House Democrats have taken.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I were in Congress, I\u2019d do just like House Democrats are doing, requiring that any continuing resolution guarantees people\u2019s premiums won\u2019t skyrocket because Affordable Care Act subsidies are expiring,\u201d he said. \u201cThe President needs to promise that folks on the ACA won\u2019t see their premiums go up two, three, four times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menefee describes himself as a fighter who wants to be \u201con the front lines\u201d protecting democracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got into public service because I deeply believe you have to stand up for the democracy you want to see,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I ran for county attorney \u2014 and now, I see that fight happening in Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Sixteen people are vying to fill Houston\u2019s 18th Congressional District seat, a position left vacant after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[10820,4952,10819,2065,288,56,58,57,287,7838],"class_list":{"0":"post-12935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-18th-congressional-district","9":"tag-christian-menefee","10":"tag-congressional-district","11":"tag-early-voting","12":"tag-elections","13":"tag-houston","14":"tag-houston-headlines","15":"tag-houston-news","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-special-election"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}