By Jacob Burg

Democrat Christian Menefee prevailed in a special election for a Texas U.S. House seat on Jan. 31, narrowing what is already a slim majority for the Republican Party in Congress’s lower chamber.

Menefee, 37, the former Harris County attorney, won a runoff election against fellow Democrat Amanda Edwards, 44, a former Houston city council member. The two were seeking to replace late Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas) in the state’s solidly Democratic 18th congressional district, which includes most of Houston’s inner city and the surrounding areas.

The seat had been vacant since Turner’s death in March 2025.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, waited until November 2025 to schedule the first round of voting, with both Menefee and Edwards rising above a slate of 16 candidates in an all-parties primary. When neither candidate won a majority, they advanced to a runoff vote.

While Democrats criticized the governor for the long wait and suggested it was intended to give the GOP a slight boost in the House for tough votes over the last 10 months, Abbott maintained that Houston officials needed six months to prepare for the special election.

Before Saturday, Republicans held a narrow 218–213 majority in the U.S. House. Democrats will likely push for Menefee’s immediate swearing in, which will erode the GOP lead to 218–214. Three additional House vacancies in Georgia, New Jersey, and California have special elections scheduled in March, April, and August, respectively.

Democrats were furious last year when House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) delayed the swearing-in of Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) until mid-November, two months after she won a special election.

Despite Democrats’ excitement over Menefee’s win, it doesn’t offer much insight into which party has an edge in November’s midterm elections. The 2024 Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Kamala Harris won Texas’s 18th district by a 40 percent-point margin over President Donald Trump, 69 percent to 29 percent.

However, Taylor Rehmet, a Democrat, prevailed in a special election for the Texas state Senate on Saturday, flipping a district that the president won by 17 percentage points in the 2024 election.

“This victory is another sign that Democrats have the momentum heading into November. Democrats have now won or overperformed in 240 of 269 key elections since Trump took office,” the Democratic National Committee (DNC) said in a Feb. 1 statement.

DNC Chair Ken Martin said the results “prove that no Republican seat is safe.”

“From now until November, Democrats are keeping our foot on the gas and organizing and competing everywhere, including in Texas and the rest of the Sun Belt,” he said in the statement.

While Trump did not immediately comment on the results of either race as of Sunday morning, he urged his voters on Saturday to get out and participate in the Texas state Senate election.

“Today is the day! To all Voters in Texas’ 9th State Senate District: get out and vote for a phenomenal Candidate, Leigh Wambsganss,” Trump wrote on social media. “She is a highly successful Entrepreneur, and an incredible supporter of our Movement to, make America great again. My very good friend, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, needs a strong conservative Republican in SD-9 to keep Texas red!”

However, despite Menefee’s win on Saturday in the U.S. House special election, he and Edwards will have to face off again on March 3, when they will enter the primary for a newly drawn 18th congressional district against Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), with that full term beginning in January 2027.

Abbott, at the behest of Trump, pushed the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature to redraw its congressional maps mid-cycle last year to try to secure Republicans five additional seats in the midterms later this year. That spurred a multi-state redistricting battle that will likely impact key races in November.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.