Christian Menefee Wins Texas 18th District Special Runoff

Christian Menefee secured victory in the special runoff election for Texas’s 18th Congressional District on January 31, 2026. This election fills a seat that had remained unoccupied since March 2025 following the death of Representative Sylvester Turner.

The runoff was necessary because no candidate achieved a majority in the all-parties primary held on November 4, 2025. Menefee, a Democrat and Harris County attorney, defeated Amanda Edwards, who is also a Democrat, to claim the seat.

Menefee’s win will decrease the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives from 218 to 217 seats. The outcome changes the party composition in the House for the remainder of the current term.

The newly elected representative will serve until the next Congress is sworn in, which is scheduled for January 2027. This term completes the period left unfinished by Turner’s passing.

What the numbers show

• The special runoff took place on January 31, 2026
• The previous all-parties primary occurred on November 4, 2025
• The Republican majority in the House shifts from 218 to 217 seats

The 18th Congressional District seat had been vacant for nearly a year before this election. The vacancy resulted from the death of Sylvester Turner, who previously held the position as a Democratic representative.

Both candidates in the runoff, Menefee and Edwards, are members of the Democratic Party. The contest followed a primary in which no single candidate secured enough votes to win outright, leading to the January runoff.

Menefee’s tenure will last until January 2027, at which point the next elected member will take office. The special election process was required to ensure the district had representation for the remainder of the current congressional term.

* This article is based on publicly available information at the time of writing.