Christian Menefee topples veteran Rep. Al Green in Texas’s redrawn 18th District, CBS News projects
A blunt clash over generational change and GOP-drawn maps culminated Tuesday night in Houston, as CBS News projected that Rep. Christian Menefee defeated longtime Rep. Al Green in the Democratic primary runoff for Texas’s newly carved 18th Congressional District.
The runoff was the product of Republican-engineered redistricting that merged parts of two safe Democratic seats, forcing the two incumbents into a single primary. Last year, at President Trump’s urging, the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature redrew congressional boundaries to give Republicans a net gain of five seats. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the map to take effect, setting the stage for what became an intraparty battle between an 18-year veteran and an incoming freshman.
Menefee, a 38-year-old former county attorney who joined the House only in February after winning a special election to replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, cast the contest as a choice between the future and the past. “You have shown up over and over,” Menefee said in a statement Tuesday night. “I will spend every day in Washington making sure it means something.”
Green, 78, has represented the 9th District since 2005 but was effectively squeezed out when the new map shifted its boundaries to the right. A fiery Trump antagonist who twice introduced articles of impeachment against the president, Green was censured last year for disrupting a Trump address to Congress. He opted to run in the 18th District rather than retire, but ended up with 44% to Menefee’s 46% in the March primary — falling short of the 50% threshold that forced this runoff.
Age hung heavily over the race. The 18th District has lost two sitting representatives in just over a year: Turner died in March 2024 at age 70, and his predecessor, Sheila Jackson Lee, died in July 2024 at 75. Both deaths — just weeks or months into their respective terms — rattled voters and amplified calls for younger leadership. Green, who was 76 when the cycle began, was the oldest candidate on the ballot.
The demographic and ideological undercurrents ran deep. Menefee represents a wave of younger Black and Hispanic Democrats pushing past the party’s old guard in districts where incumbents have held power for decades. And while both candidates share nearly identical voting records, Menefee’s campaign emphasized “new energy” and pledged to tackle housing costs, climate resilience, and flood mitigation — issues that resonate in a sprawling district prone to hurricanes and gentrification.
With the 18th District still safely Democratic on the new map, Tuesday’s outcome effectively decides the general election in November. Menefee, who has not faced a Republican opponent with significant funding, is heavily favored to win this fall.
The result also carries implications for national House dynamics. Progressives lost an outspoken voice in Green, but gained a younger lawmaker who could hold the seat for a generation. For the GOP, the relentless redistricting push yielded a mixed reward: a safer Republican seat in the neighboring 9th District, but also a more energized Democratic base in the 18th.