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Democrat Christian Menefee, a former Harris County attorney in Houston, won a special congressional election in a left-leaning district. in Texas, which has been vacant for almost a year.
The Associated Press reports that Menefee defeated former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards, a fellow Democrat, in Saturday’s runoff election to fill the seat left vacant when Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner died last March.
Menefee’s victory puts Republicans to the test Majority in the House – they currently control House 218-213 – will lose a seat when Menefee is sworn in to Congress.
FEARS OF DEMOCRATIC RECOVERY RISE AS HOUSE REPUBLICANS HOLD ON TO A FRAGILE MAJORITY
Harris County District Attorney Christian Menefee was endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus political action committee. (Official website of the Harris County Prosecutor’s Office)
Sylvester, a former longtime state lawmaker, served two terms as mayor of Houston before winning election to Congress in 2024, to fill the seat of the late longtime Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
As Texas redrew its congressional map for the 2026 midterm elections, part of the high-stakes redistricting battle between President Donald Trump and Republicans versus Democrats, the special election used the state’s current district boundaries.
FEARS OF DEMOCRATIC RECOVERY RISE AS HOUSE REPUBLICANS HOLD ON TO A FRAGILE MAJORITY
Democratic Representative Sylvester Turner of Texas died on March 5, 2025. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Adding another lawmaker to the ranks of House Democrats will give House Republican leaders even more headaches.
‘They better be here,’ House Speaker says Mike Johnson recently said about its members. “I told everyone, and not as a joke, I said: no adventure sports, no risk taking, take your vitamins. Stay healthy and be there.”
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 Whip Tom Emmer’s office confirmed that he is informing members that “aside from life-and-death circumstances” they expect Republican lawmakers to be at the Capitol.
Three more special congressional elections are scheduled this year.
Eleven candidates are competing in the February 5 Democratic Party primary in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District.
The seat remained vacant after the arrival of the governor of New Jersey. Mikey Sherrill resigned after winning the November gubernatorial election in the Garden State.
Mikie Sherrill, then a Democratic Representative, resigned from Congress in November after winning the New Jersey gubernatorial election. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The winner of the Democratic primary will face Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway, the only Republican running in the special election, which will be held April 16.
The northern New Jersey suburban district leans left, with Sherrill winning re-election in 2024 by 15 points, the same margin she won in the district during November’s gubernatorial showdown.
But then-Vice President Kamala Harris won the district by just eight points in the 2024 presidential election, giving the GOP hope of flipping the seat.
As many as 22 candidates, including 17 Republicans, are running in a special election in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, in the race to succeed former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Four weeks ago, the MAGA firebrand and former top Trump House ally resigned from Congress a year before his term ended.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned from Congress on January 5, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Per Georgia state law, all candidates will appear on the same ballot. If no candidate obtains 50% of the votes, a second round between the first two will take place on April 7.
The northwest Georgia district is solidly Republican, with Greene winning re-election in 2024 by nearly 30 points and Trump winning the district by 37 points.
California’s primary day for the 2026 election is scheduled for June 2, and this year it 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 recent unexpected death of Republican Doug LaMalfa. The general elections will take place on August 4.
The district, located in northeastern California, is solidly Republican.
Republican Representative Doug LaMalfa of California died on January 6, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Like Texas, California is also changing its congressional maps as part of the redistricting wars, but the special elections will be held according to current district boundaries.
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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 also complained that Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott didn’t 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.
