Rep. Christian Menefee won big.
Rep. Christian Menefee
U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee defeated longtime U.S. Rep. Al Green in Houston’s closely watched Democratic runoff for Texas’ newly redrawn Congressional District 18, positioning Menefee to hold the heavily Democratic seat in November.
The race capped more than a year of political upheaval surrounding the district following the deaths of longtime U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who succeeded Jackson Lee in Congress but died just two months into his term. Some Houston-area voters were forced to cast ballots in the race four times in less than a year.
Menefee already represents the district, having won a January 2026 special election under the previous boundaries to complete Turner’s unfinished term. He will now advance to the November general election as the favorite to secure a full two-year term beginning in January 2027.
Tuesday’s matchup was created after Texas Republican lawmakers approved new congressional maps that merged much of Green’s longtime 9th Congressional District into the reconfigured 18th District, setting up an unusual race between two incumbent Democrats.
Throughout the campaign, both candidates repeatedly emphasized that the matchup was fabricated by Texas Republicans and President Donald Trump.
“I didn’t ask for these new maps, Congressman Green didn’t ask for this, and the voters of this district certainly didn’t ask for this,” Menefee recently told the Houston Chronicle. “But we are not going to let Donald Trump and (Gov.) Greg Abbott use this gerrymandering scheme as a distraction from the real issues.”
That was the first called race, basically right after early voting was reported. Rep. Menefee not only had a big lead in Harris County, he also led big in Fort Bend County, where Rep. Green had performed strongly in March. Of course, Fort Bend had some problems during the day.
Some Fort Bend County voters experienced significant delays at polling locations Tuesday afternoon after a clerical error caused check-in systems to malfunction across the county.
Check-In System Goes Down Across Fort Bend County Polling Locations
Fort Bend County Election Administrator Chase Wilson said the problem was traced to an incorrect file being uploaded to the poll book system. A voter file from the May 2 city and school election was mistakenly loaded into the primary runoff database, rendering check-in tablets non-functional at polling locations countywide.Provisional Ballots Offered as County Works to Restore System
Wilson said the issue was discovered around 2:30 p.m. and the county immediately contacted its vendor, which provided a fix. Voters who were unable to check in during the outage were offered provisional ballots, and paper combination forms were provided on the advice of the Texas Secretary of State’s office. Wilson said the glitch did not affect the integrity of the election or the accuracy of ballot totals — only the check-in process.All Polling Locations Back Online Before Press Conference
Wilson said all affected polling locations were back online before a press conference held Tuesday afternoon.
“One hundred percent of all issues have been resolved at the polling locations,” Wilson said.Judge Wong Says He Would Have Extended Hours — But the Decision Wasn’t His
Fort Bend County Judge Daniel Wong said he would have acted if he could, but the authority to request extended hours during a primary rests with the party chairs, not the judge.“If this were a November election, I would request an extended voting time,” Wong said. “During a primary election, the two party chairs have the authority to ask for an extension of voting time. I do not have that authority.”
The Fort Bend GOP Chair wanted hours extended, the Democratic chair, for reasons unknown to me, did not. I don’t know what’s up with that. Rep. Menefee sent out a statement while this was happening requesting that Fort Bend extend their hours. I dunno, man. Houston Public Media and the Press have more.
Elsewhere, Colin Allred had about a ten point lead over Rep. Julie Johnson for the redrawn CD33. Johnny Garcia had a decent lead in CD35, with 60% of the early vote in Bexar County. It appears he has been declared the winner, so that’s a relief. On the Republican side, Alex Mealer won the twerp-off in CD09, while some dude named Jon Bonck won in CD38.
UPDATE: In the end, Johnny Garcia got over 63% of the vote, so good job everyone. He’ll face Carlos de la Cruz in November, another beneficiary of a late Trump endorsement. To add insult to injury, John Lujan, for whom his buddies in the Lege drew this seat, saw his anointed successor in HD118 also lose in the primary. Hilarious. Colin Allred defeated Julie Johnson 54-46 in CD33.