In May, Christian Menefee won the Democratic primary for Texas’ historically Black 18th Congressional District after Governor Greg Abbott and Republican legislators redrew the state’s congressional map, forcing him to compete against Congressman Al Green, who represented Texas’ 9th Congressional District—another historically Black seat that was redrawn into a majority-white conservative seat—for more than 20 years. Before this, he defeated Amanda Edwards in a long-delayed special election to fill the seat following the deaths of longtime Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and then, her successor, former Houston mayor Sylvester Turner.
From 2021 to 2026, Menefee served as Harris County attorney, the first Black person and the youngest, at 32 years old, to hold that post. While in county office, Menefee fought President Donald Trump’s mandates, including successfully suing Trump for withholding healthcare funds for refugees. He fended off the state’s challenges to county election results and sued companies responsible for creosote and concrete batch contamination in the low-income and predominantly Black communities in Houston.
