Democrat Christian Menefee wins Texas special election, shrinks GOP majority
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Democrat Christian Menefee, a former attorney for Houston’s Harris County, won a special congressional election in a left-leaning congressional district in Texas that has been vacant for nearly a year.
The Associated Press reported that Menefee defeated former Houston City Council member and fellow Democrat Amanda Edwards in Saturday’s runoff elections to fill the seat left vacant when Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner died last March.
Menefee’s victory means one seat less than Republicans’ House majority (they currently control the chamber, 218-213) when Menefee is sworn into Congress.
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Harris County Prosecutor Christian Menefee has been endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus Political Action Committee. (Harris County Prosecutor’s Office official website)
Sylvester, a longtime state lawmaker, served two terms as mayor of Houston before winning election to Congress in 2024 to fill the seat of longtime Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
Although Texas redrew congressional maps for the 2026 midterms as part of a high-stakes redistricting battle between President Donald Trump and Republicans and Democrats, the state’s existing district lines were used in the special election.
Representative Sylvester Turner, a Democrat from Texas, died on March 5, 2025. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
The addition of another lawmaker to the ranks of House Democrats will cause more headaches for the Republican leadership in the chamber.
“They better be here,” House Speaker Mike Johnson recently said of his members. “I told everyone, not as a joke, no adventure sports, no taking risks, take your vitamins. Stay healthy and be here.”
DEMOCRATIC STATE FEARS RISE AS HOUSE DRIVES REPUBLICANS INTO A VULNERABLE MAJORITY
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., leaves the chamber to speak with reporters after the final vote to end the longest government shutdown in history at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
And House Majority Rep. Tom Emmer’s office confirmed that he had informed members that they expected Republican lawmakers to be on Capitol Hill “except in life-or-death circumstances.”
Three more special congressional elections will be held this year.
Eleven candidates are running in the Democratic primary election to be held on February 5 in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District.
The seat remains vacant as of now Governor of New Jersey. Mikie Sherrill He resigned after winning the November gubernatorial election in the Garden State.
Then-Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill resigned from Congress in November after winning the election for governor of New Jersey. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The winner of the Democratic primary will face Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway, the only Republican to file for an April 16 special election.
The suburban area in northern New Jersey leans left; Sherrill won re-election in 2024 by 15 points; That’s the same margin he carried the district in November’s gubernatorial showdown.
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But then-Vice President Kamala Harris won the district by just eight points in the 2024 presidential election, giving the GOP some hope that she could possibly flip the seat.
22 candidates, 17 of them Republicans, are running in the special election in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District to replace former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The MAGA firebrand and onetime Trump House top ally left Congress four weeks ago, a year shy of the end of his term.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned from Congress on January 5, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
According to Georgia state law, all candidates will compete on the same ballot. If no candidate receives 50 percent of the votes, a second round of elections between the top two candidates will be held on April 7.
The district in northwest Georgia is solidly Republican; Greene will win re-election in 2024 by about 30 points, while Trump carries the district by 37 points.
Primary Day for the 2026 election in California is scheduled for June 2, and this year will also include a primary for the special election in the state’s 1st Congressional District in the race to fill a seat left vacant following the unexpected death of Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa. The general election will be held on August 4.
The region in northeastern California is solidly Republican.
California Republican Representative Doug LaMalfa died on January 6, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Similar to Texas, California is changing congressional maps as part of redistricting battles, but special elections will be held under existing district lines.
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The White House and congressional Republicans have criticized Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision not to hold a special election to fill LaMalfa’s seat until August, six months after the late congressman’s death.
But Democrats similarly complained that Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott did not schedule the special election to fill Turner’s seat until eight months after the late lawmaker’s death.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this story.
