Texas' 18th District voters prepare for their 4th election in 7 months: 'It's exhausting'

U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee and U.S. Rep. Al Green are advancing to a May runoff in the Democratic primary for Texas’ newly redrawn 18th Congressional District, extending a wearying stretch of elections that will ask many Houston voters to cast ballots for the same congressional seat four times in less than seven months.

Since November, voters in the district have participated in a special election, a January runoff, and now this week’s Democratic primary. The May runoff will mark yet another return to the polls.

Joetta Stevenson, president of the Fifth Ward Super Neighborhood, said voters in the 18th District are frustrated and tired.

“It’s exhausting,” she said. “And imagine someone who just wants to vote for somebody and be done with it. Now they’re being asked to go to the polls every couple of months.”

Congressional District 18: See how your neighbor voted in the primary election

Runoffs typically see steep declines in participation. After months of campaign ads, mailers and overlapping contests, turnout in May could dip even further, University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus said.

“It’s extremely rare that this happens,” he said. “When you take it all together, you’ve got voter fatigue and you’ve got voter confusion. We may see a decline in this race because frankly, voters are just sick of voting.”

Still, Stevenson said community leaders will push residents to stay engaged.

“We can’t let this defeat us,” she said. “When my parents were little, they couldn’t even vote. So this is not going to stop us. We’re going to keep encouraging people to show up.”

‘I didn’t ask for these new maps’

The string of elections were not all held under the same district lines. The November special election and January runoff were conducted under the former 18th Congressional District boundaries, which covered many predominantly Black neighborhoods in central and north Houston. 

The March primary, however, took place under new maps that reshaped the district, part of a push by Texas Republicans to gain seats in Congress. 

The new map collapsed Houston’s historically Black 9th District – held by Green for two decades – and packed many of its voters into the reconfigured 18th, while shifting other northeast Houston neighborhoods into the 29th District. 

Some voters who cast ballots in the special election were no longer eligible to vote in the March primary, while others were drawn into the 18th District for the first time. A portion of the electorate has voted in every round.

“I didn't ask for these new maps, Congressman Green didn't ask for this, and the voters of this district certainly didn't ask for this,” Menefee said in a statement. “But we are not going to let (President) Donald Trump and (Gov.) Greg Abbott use this gerrymandering scheme as a distraction from the real issues.”

The race’s unusual timeline traces back to 2023, when longtime District 18 U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee launched a bid for Houston mayor. She lost, then died in 2024.

Democratic Party officials selected former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to replace her as the Democratic nominee. Turner won in November 2024 and was sworn in that January, only to die two months into his term.

Abbott then scheduled a special election in November 2025 to fill the remainder of Turner’s term. The governor faced criticism from community leaders who argued the district had gone months without representation in a narrowly divided Congress.

While the seat sat vacant, Republican lawmakers approved the redistricting plan that saw the 18th District absorb much of Green’s 9th District, shifting him into the newly configured territory.

While Menefee and former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards were competing in a January special election runoff under the old district lines, Menefee, Edwards and Green had already filed for the March 2026 primary in the newly redrawn district, which will determine who serves a full two-year term beginning in January 2027.

Edwards suspended her campaign Feb. 9 but remained on the ballot because filing deadlines had passed months earlier.

“It is not her fault,” Rottinghaus said. “The way the calendar fell and the frequency of elections meant there was overlap. She was artificially on the ballot because of the structure of the system.”

Edwards still drew thousands of votes across Harris and Fort Bend counties, helping to force the race into a runoff. Rottinghaus said it is difficult to determine whether those votes reflected confusion or genuine support.

A district divided by county lines

Tuesday’s results revealed geographic divides within the new 18th District.

In Harris County, Menefee led with 51% of the vote compared to Green’s 38%. But in Fort Bend County, including Missouri City, Fresno and Stafford, Green carried 63% of the vote to Menefee’s 29%.

State Rep. Ron Reynolds, a longtime Green ally who represents parts of Fort Bend County, credited the congressman’s deep ties in the area for the margin. Without that margin, he said, “We don’t have a runoff.”

“Fort Bend gave him a strong boost,” Reynolds said. “Most of those communities were part of his former district. His track record and the messaging resonated.”

Rottinghaus agreed, adding, “Green ran strongest in the areas that were historically his.”

Reynolds said he has “never seen anything like” the volume of elections voters in the district have faced in recent months.

“There’s going to be a lot of voter fatigue,” Reynolds said. “Especially those original 18th District voters. They voted, they voted again, they voted again, and now you want them to vote again for the same seat. It’s a lot.”

Still, Reynolds said that Green enters the runoff with renewed momentum, pointing in part to Green’s high-profile removal from Trump’s State of the Union address last month.

Reynolds said Green’s campaign will now focus heavily on turnout and on courting voters who supported Edwards or Gretchen Brown in the first round.

“A lot of it is going to be turnout,” Reynolds said. “We feel very strong about our voters coming back out.”

Menefee allies argue the results show his strength in the district’s base of Harris County, where Menefee served as county attorney from 2021 until earlier this year.

Odus Evbagharu, former chair of the Harris County Democratic Party and now the Democratic nominee for state House District 135, said Menefee finished first in a newly drawn district many believed favored Green.

“We just have to keep talking to voters and go finish across that line,” he said.

Evbagharu said the campaign will focus on both turnout and persuasion, particularly in Fort Bend County, where Menefee did not previously represent voters.

“You go engage them where they’re at,” Evbagharu said. “Show up to the churches, the civic clubs, the community events. We have more time now to make that case.”

Menefee framed the primary results as evidence of continued Democratic enthusiasm and said his campaign is building a coalition for May.

“The 18th Congressional District has shown loud and clear that they want a fighter who can deliver real results,” Menefee said. “We are ready to win this runoff.”

Early voting for the runoff will begin May 18.