Texas redistricting toppled a longstanding Democratic incumbent Tuesday when Rep. Christian Menefee upset Rep. Al Green in a Houston-area runoff that pitted two sitting House Democrats against each other.
Rep. Al Green, one of Congress’s most vociferous Trump foes, lost his Democratic runoff to fellow Texas Rep. Christian Menefee after redistricting disrupted congressional lines in the Houston area.
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The battle for Texas’s heavily Democratic 18th Congressional District was an intra-party contest, with Green and Menefee both fighting to keep their House seats after redistricting reconfigured the congressional districts around Houston.
Under Texas law, if no candidate has received a majority of the votes in a primary, the race will go to a runoff election.
Menefee earned 46 percent of the votes and Green 44.2 percent after the early-March primary.
Green has been one of President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics in Congress, filing various impeachment proceedings against him during both of Trump’s tenures.
Green has also been thrown out of Trump’s State of the Union presentations several times for getting up and protesting during the speech.
After the March primary, Green spoke with Fox News Digital on Capitol Hill, and he identified $1.5 million in spending against his campaign from the crypto industry as a major force behind the tightness of his election.
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That was also a shot at Menefee for his claimed lack of expertise and for not showing up for votes early in his congressional career after his time as an attorney.
Menefee will take on Republican Ronald Whitfield in the November general election, though Menefee is strongly favored in the heavily Democratic Houston-area district.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Christian Menefee wins Democratic primary for 18th House District in Texas, defeating Rep. Al Green pic.twitter.com/SI4B7btJ0a
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 27, 2026
Buh BYE , AL Green! Looks like YOU have been impeached! 😂 pic.twitter.com/QvmMV6oBuW
— Imperfect Believer (@Imperfectblever) May 27, 2026
The high-stakes election in the Texas Republican primary between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton has been called.
President Donald Trump endorsed Paxton, the outspoken Texas attorney general who has become one of Trump’s closest allies in the state.
Paxton won the election in a landslide.
Now, Republicans will face off against left-wing Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in November.
This will likely become one of the most important Senate races in the country as Republicans fight to preserve their narrow 53-47 majority.
Talarico emerged as the Democratic nominee after defeating another left-wing member of Congress, Rep. Jasmine Crockett — one of Trump’s loudest critics in Congress — during the March primary.
Talarico’s left-wing language on social media, which endeared him to Lone Star state progressives, is proving to be a liability as he tries to woo Texans in the general election.
Republicans have been pulling up footage and X postings from Talarico from within the last few years.
Talarico’s been saying things like “poverty is violence,” the Bible supports abortion, there are six biological sexes, and other radical stuff.
Talarico declared in another prior speech that “people don’t belong in cages” and even seemingly likened prisons to “domestic abuse.”
Groups like the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) have seized on statements like that, optimistic that they won’t play well in historically red Texas.
The NRSC launched a deepfake attack ad against Talarico to show him as reading his prior “extreme statements praising transgenderism, twisting Christian beliefs, and advocating for open borders.”
One theme the GOP has especially grabbed onto is Talarico’s use of religion to promote his liberal agenda.
“In my faith, God is non-binary,” Talarico said in a 2021 speech in which he railed against a GOP bill requiring K-12 athletes to play sports that align with their biological sex.
Earlier that year, Talarico suggested that there are more than two biological sexes.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
