{"id":181106,"date":"2026-02-26T11:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T11:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/181106\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T11:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T11:09:15","slug":"a-new-age-for-houston-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/181106\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Age for Houston Politics?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was cross-posted from the Texas Observer<\/a>, an investigative news organization that covers Texas communities whose stories are often ignored.<\/p>\n

Among the youngest cohorts of voting age, there\u2019s a running online<\/a> joke<\/a> that they \u201cshould\u2019ve been\u201d buying real estate or investing in Bitcoin decades ago, before seemingly everything exploded in value, but instead, alas, they were fetuses.<\/p>\n

Part of me wonders if Congressman Al Green, the long-serving 78-year-old now facing 37-year-old Christian Menefee in the primary for the newly drawn historically Black 18th Congressional District, might be feeling something similar. Maybe, if he\u2019d been a little nicer to the crypto industry from his seat on the Financial Services Committee (a position he first nabbed way back in 2005), the super PAC Fairshake\u2014backed in large part<\/a> by the controversial \u201ctechno-optimist<\/a>\u201d Marc Andreessen\u2019s venture capital firm\u2014wouldn\u2019t be spending $1.5 million<\/a> to get him out of Congress.<\/p>\n

Money is one thing, but that last-minute outside offensive doesn\u2019t fully explain a 24-point favorability gap<\/a> (52 to 28 percent), advantage to Menefee, the former Harris County attorney who just a couple weeks ago won the runoff to represent the 18th after it sat vacant for nearly a year. (Menefee won under its current boundaries, not the redrawn lines for the upcoming primary.)<\/p>\n

More from Texas Observer<\/a><\/p>\n

So, what gives? We\u2019re talking about Al Green, the man who stood and shouted in protest at Donald Trump during his 2024 joint address to Congress, wagging<\/a> his gold-capped cane while his fellow Democrats twiddled on their phones and went mute; who was escorted out of the House chamber minutes into Trump\u2019s 2026 State of the Union address for holding a sign reading, \u201cBlack people aren\u2019t apes!,\u201d a reference<\/a> to an AI-generated video Trump posted that depicted the Obamas as apes. Poll<\/a> after poll<\/a> has shown that Democrats want their electeds to fight harder. Was this not fighting? Green, the former president of the Houston NAACP, who saber-rattled<\/a> about impeachment in 2017\u2014who actually filed articles<\/a> of impeachment in July 2019, months before<\/a> his fellow Democrats would join him. The congressman who once confronted<\/a> Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, about his company\u2019s historic ties to slavery. Are you not entertained?<\/p>\n

If you ask Green, it isn\u2019t the age difference. In fact, to say as much is, per his office<\/a>, \u201cageism.\u201d On January 18, days after Houston Chronicle columnist Joy Sewing wrote<\/a> that \u201cPeople are ready for a new generation of leadership,\u201d Green posted a video to Facebook: \u201cI think that the Chronicle quite frankly needs new leadership,\u201d he said, before ripping<\/a> the newspaper into pieces. But the Chronicle wasn\u2019t the only rag in the laundry bin. Politico called<\/a> the race a \u201cgenerational fight,\u201d while The Texas Tribune said<\/a> it was shaped in part by \u201cthe thorny politics of age and seniority.\u201d The New York Times called<\/a> it \u201can example of the generational clashes in Democratic primary contests.\u201d Now, the congressional district\u2014formerly home to civil rights icon Barbara Jordan\u2014might fall into the hands of a 37-year-old for the first time since, well, Barbara Jordan. (The youngest representative to lead the district, at least within the past 50 years, remains Mickey Leland, who assumed office at age 35 in 1979.)<\/p>\n

Right now, Houston-area politics is looking decidedly old. Mayor John Whitmire, age 76, already announced he\u2019s running<\/a> for reelection<\/a> in 2028. Annise Parker, the former mayor and current frontrunner to replace Lina Hidalgo as Harris County Judge, is 69. The median age of its city council is roughly 55\u2014two years older than that of Dallas, eight years older than that of Austin, and a whopping 20 years older than that of Houston\u2019s median resident<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But no congressional district in the nation has faced the bitter consequences of gerontocracy quite like Texas\u2019s 18th. First, the Houston institution, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, died of cancer in July 2024 at the age of 74, a year into her 15th term. Next, after a special election, former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, age 70, took over the seat. He died just two months into his term. For months and months, Governor Greg Abbott delayed calling a special election to fill the seat\u2014which so happened to help maintain the Republicans\u2019 slim majority in the U.S. House. Then this summer, at Trump\u2019s request and on Abbott\u2019s orders, the Texas Legislature convened in a special session to redraw the state\u2019s congressional maps to add five more GOP-leaning districts. Green\u2019s 9th Congressional District\u2014a majority Black and Hispanic seat\u2014was a direct casualty of the gerrymandering, as it was reconstituted as a red district largely outside of Houston. The 18th lost some of its core territory while absorbing parts of the 9th as well.<\/p>\n

For 332 days, residents lacked representation. That left \u201ca wound\u201d among voters, Durrell Douglas, a Houston organizer born and raised in the district, told me. Even Mike Doyle, chair of the Harris County Democratic Party, told<\/a> Houston Public Media that \u201cAnybody who\u2019s looking at the race is obviously legitimately concerned about \u2026 we can\u2019t go through this again.\u201d Having won late January\u2019s special election against Amanda Edwards with nearly 70 percent of the vote, Menefee is technically the incumbent. And while Green has correctly pointed out that he didn\u2019t move to a new congressional district, the district swallowed him, Douglas said that he and the rest of the 18th made themselves \u201coverwhelmingly\u201d clear when they voted for Menefee a couple weeks ago. \u201cIt\u2019s like, pull a Lloyd Doggett and step aside,\u201d he said, referring to the veteran Austin congressman who, following Republicans\u2019 redistricting, gave up his seat<\/a> for 36-year-old Greg Casar.<\/p>\n

CHRISTIAN MENEFEE MAY NOT HAVE BEEN BUYING real estate as a fetus, but he certainly came of age amid the McMansion boom that, like the show \u201cMTV Cribs,\u201d came crashing down post-2008. (At the time, Menefee was a cashier at HEB.) Late last September, his campaign alluded to the cult-favorite TV series in a commercial\u2014the camera zipping around<\/a> Menefee\u2019s Tuscan-style suburban home, presenting phrases like \u201cSued Trump\u201d and \u201cSued Ken Paxton\u201d in gold-bling pastiche while he spars with a punching bag in the garage.<\/p>\n

Menefee, like Green, wants us to know he\u2019s a fighter. He may not have the traditionally influential endorsements Green has accrued\u2014from Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, age 71, one of the main progressive power brokers in town, to longtime California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, age 87\u2014but he\u2019s taken on heavyweight Republicans \u201cand won,\u201d he says in the commercial. Among Menefee\u2019s endorsements<\/a> are members of the comparatively youthful wing of Houston politics.<\/p>\n

(Neither Menefee nor Green\u2019s offices responded to multiple requests for comment.)<\/p>\n

Before Menefee won the Harris County attorney seat in 2020, the office was a sleepy afterthought, second fiddle to the district attorney\u2019s office. Where his predecessor, the Democrat Vince Ryan, politely quibbled with Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2014such as in a lawsuit against<\/a> Volkswagen for skirting diesel emissions limits\u2014Menefee took him to task, defeating him before the Texas Supreme Court in 2022 to ensure<\/a> all votes in Harris County were counted.<\/p>\n

Both candidates are \u201cspeaking to the reality of the moment that we\u2019re living in now,\u201d said Rain Eatmon, leader of an advocacy group in Houston\u2019s Acres Homes. \u201cBut, once again, the fresh air that Menefee brings really renews a sense of hope, because not only is he closer to the ground, but he\u2019s also closer to the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

One need only view the two candidates\u2019 online policy pages to understand what she means. Where Menefee cites specific problems within the district\u2014\u201cvacant lots, crumbling infrastructure, and a lack of basic necessities like grocery stores\u201d\u2014and advocates for specific positions such as Medicare for All, Green\u2019s page is comparatively vague. He repeatedly assures readers he will \u201ccontinue to\u201d make efforts for \u201cImmigration\u201d and \u201cHousing,\u201d but specific bills, let alone specific ideas beyond opposing cuts to our already shredded social safety net? No dice. And not to discount Green\u2019s accomplishments on the Homeland Security and Oversight committees, or the money he\u2019s allocated to his district, but since 2007, he\u2019s been the primary sponsor of just four bills<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Juli McShay, a local professor and Houston organizer, put it bluntly: \u201cAs of late, the way Green has come off as a fighter has been more performative.\u201d Corisha Rogers, 32-year-old co-founder of the Houston Progressive Caucus\u2014which spearheaded<\/a> the effort to bar John Whitmire from ever again receiving the Harris County Democratic Party\u2019s endorsement\u2014concurred. \u201cWe have a lot of performative candidates right now,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we want to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green\u2019s biggest asset is his experience\u2014as Eatmon told me, he\u2019s remembered as \u201ca light in the darkness\u201d through the desegregation years\u2014but his experience may also be his Achilles\u2019 heel. The prevailing feeling of the day is that the country wouldn\u2019t be in this mess if these septuagenarian politicians actually knew what they were doing, and that they\u2019ve failed to pass the reins. Meanwhile, Menefee can authentically campaign on what he terms<\/a> \u201caffordability\u201d because he lived it\u2014from his helm at the cash register\u2014in a way that those like Green (who were insulated from the worst of the Great Recession) simply didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

One wedge Green is pushing hard<\/a> on is Menefee\u2019s connection to the crypto lobby. In an impromptu 19-minute press conference on February 13, Green proclaimed: \u201cWe cannot allow the crypto industry to own Congress! Mr. Menefee didn\u2019t know what he was doing when he signed on with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is it an obvious line of attack? Sure, but it\u2019s not one without merit.<\/p>\n

More than 60 percent <\/a>of the country believes cryptocurrency is neither safe nor reliable. I\u2019d bet most came to that conclusion merely by using their eyes, watching plain-as-day corruption<\/a> as Trump and his allies exchange decentralized<\/a> assets<\/a> like notes in a classroom. Meanwhile, residents of countless municipalities, from Minneapolis to San Marcos<\/a>, have organized against the recent boom in data centers\u2014upon which crypto miners and AI titans rely.<\/p>\n

Yet Menefee, on his policy page, says the blockchain offers \u201cthe potential to increase trust, transparency, and efficiency\u2014from finance to supply chains,\u201d later offering a conciliatory promise to \u201cprotect consumers\u201d and \u201csupport innovation.\u201d It\u2019s a rare disconnect for a politician elsewhere so adeptly tapping into voters\u2019 presentiments.<\/p>\n

I asked Douglas, the organizer born and raised in the 18th, if he thought this line of attack might harm Menefee among voters. \u201cMy mother is a 59-year-old Black woman\u2014she\u2019s your median CD-18 voter,\u201d he said. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t know what crypto is.\u201d<\/p>\n

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