Almost a year after voters in Houston-area Texas went without representation in the U.S. House, a special runoff election is set for Saturday to choose the next member for the 18th Congressional District. The decision rests between Democrats Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards, who advanced after voters failed to give any candidate a majority on Nov. 4. The seat became vacant following the death of Democratic congressman Sylvester Turner, who died March 5, 2025, two months into his term.
In the November special election, Turner’s replacement effort featured 16 candidates, but none reached the majority threshold needed to avoid a runoff. With two Democrats on the ballot for Saturday, the party is guaranteed to narrow the slim Republican majority in the House at least temporarily, even as other vacancies are also reported in California, Georgia and New Jersey. The Associated Press said it will declare a winner only when it determines there is no scenario in which trailing candidates could close the gap.
AP’s decision notes lay out how the House runoff will fit into a larger redistricting shift in Texas. Texas is using different district lines for the midterm elections in November after the Legislature passed new maps in the summer. Under that change, the current 18th Congressional District—centered around Houston and entirely in Harris County—will be divided among nearly a half-dozen districts, with the largest share of the present district becoming part of the new 29th District. The new 18th District will include part of Harris County and extend into Fort Bend County.
The 18th District that will be replaced by new lines has long been Democratic-leaning in a heavily Republican state. AP said both Turner and Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024, carried the district with about 69% of the vote in their respective races. In last year’s special election, Menefee edged Edwards 29% to 26%, while state Rep. Jolanda Jones finished third with 19% and endorsed Edwards. AP said the remaining Democratic contenders together received 9% in that field, while five Republican candidates collectively received about 15% and the remaining 2% was split among independent and third-party candidates.
Campaign finance figures in AP’s notes showed Menefee outraising Edwards as the runoff approaches. AP said that as of Jan. 11, Menefee had spent about $1.8 million on his campaign, compared with about $1.5 million for Edwards. AP also said Menefee had about $389,000 in the bank, while Edwards had about $281,000. AP reported that former U.S. Rep. Erica Lee Carter endorsed Menefee and that Carter is the daughter of former Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who represented the area for nearly 30 years before her death in July 2024.
The decision notes also describe a parallel special election in North Texas, about 300 miles away from Houston. In Tarrant County, voters are set to elect a replacement for Republican state Sen. Kelly Hancock, who left office in 2025 to become acting state comptroller. AP said that in Senate District 9, Democrat Taylor Rehmet led the field in the Nov. 4 special election with about 48% of the vote, followed by Republican Leigh Wambsganss at about 36% and Republican John Huffman at about 16%. AP reported that Donald Trump carried the district in 2024 with about 58% of the vote.
Hancock’s successor will complete the remainder of the term, and AP noted that the Senate is not scheduled to meet again until 2027. AP said Republicans hold an 18-11 majority, with two previously Republican-held seats vacant. For vote-counting, AP said it will cover developments if a race has not been called, including candidate concessions or declarations of victory, and will explain why a winner has not yet been declared.
AP also laid out logistics for when polls close and how ballots will be handled. Polls close at 7 p.m. CST, which is 8 p.m. EST. For the House runoff, AP said voters registered in the 18th Congressional District may participate, and similarly voters registered in state Senate District 9 may vote in that state race. AP reported that in the 2025 special election for the 18th District, about 381,000 voters were registered and about 76,000 voted, or about 20% of registered voters, with 51% voting early or by absentee ballot.
As of Tuesday in AP’s notes, AP said nearly 14,000 ballots had been cast in the 18th Congressional District and about 45,000 in state Senate District 9. AP also described how turnout and advance voting can affect what gets reported on election night. In its 2025 Nov. 4 special congressional election, AP first reported results at 8:18 p.m. EST, and said the last vote update that night was at 2:09 a.m. EST with more than 99% of the total vote counted.
For Saturday’s runoff, AP said that the first vote update of the night in both Harris and Tarrant counties typically includes all or nearly all early and absentee voting results. But AP said a “significant portion” of early voting results in Harris County will not be available until about a week later because early voting in the county was extended by two additional days after some early voting sites were shut down due to inclement weather. AP said votes cast on those additional days will be treated as provisional ballots and reviewed and tabulated for release Feb. 6.