United States: Christian Menefee defeated longtime Representative Al Green in the Democratic primary runoff for Texas’s 18th Congressional District on Tuesday, May 26.
Menefee, 38, secured 69.5% of about 24,000 votes cast, according to results cited by CNN. The newly redrawn, Houston-based district includes much of Harris County and parts of Brazoria and Fort Bend counties.
The race matched two sitting Democrats after redistricting moved Green’s former 9th District into the 18th. Menefee entered Congress earlier this year after winning a special election to replace Representative Sylvester Turner, who died in 2025.
Green, 78, was seeking a 12th term after serving in Congress for two decades. He had built a national profile as a critic of President Donald Trump of the United States and was removed from the House chamber during Trump’s State of the Union address in March.
U.S. Rep. Al Green addressed supporters in Houston after losing the Democratic runoff for Texas’ newly redrawn Congressional District 18 to Christian Menefee. 🔗https://t.co/FVlyhqPJA5 pic.twitter.com/inBQO8gOy0
— Houston Chronicle (@HoustonChron) May 27, 2026Menefee, a former Harris County attorney, pointed to lawsuits his office filed against the Trump administration during the campaign. Both candidates had presented themselves as opponents of Trump’s policies.
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The district had been vacant for long stretches after the deaths of Sheila Jackson Lee in 2024 and Turner in 2025. Its political history stretches back to Barbara Jordan, who became the first Black woman from the South elected to the U.S. House in 1973.
