Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards, a former Houston City Council member, are competing in a runoff election for Texas’s 18th Congressional District, a safely Democratic seat left vacant by Representative Sylvester Turner’s death in March 2025.

Two Democrats are vying to fill the House seat left vacant by the late Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas) Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee (D) and former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards (D) are running in the special election runoff in the 18th Congressional District after neither secured a majority in November to win outright.

After Christian Menefee is sworn in, Democrats will have 214 House seats. Republicans currently hold 218, giving House Speaker Mike Johnson a razor-thin majority.

The future of the district is also tied to ongoing legal battles over Texas’ congressional maps. Lawmakers passed a new GOP-drawn map last year that was temporarily blocked by a federal court as unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court has since allowed the map to be used for the 2026 elections while the case continues.

Two Democrats are competing to serve out the rest of Sylvester Turner’s term. The winner will have a two-week incumbency advantage before early voting begins in the March primary.

A January poll from Lake Research Partners suggests that if Menefee, the top vote-getter out of 16 candidates in a November 2025 special election, wins the runoff and becomes a sitting Congressman, he will likely go on to secure victory against longtime U.S. Rep. Al Green in the March primary.

Houston voters who have gone almost a year without representation in the U.S. House will finally fill the seat in a special runoff election Saturday. Democrats Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards were the top vote-getters in the Nov.

Democrats call the upset a warning sign for the GOP, saying Rehmet's victory shows voters are rejecting Republican policies even in longtime strongholds.