HOUSTON (AP) — In a special election held Tuesday night, Democrats Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards emerged as the leading candidates for a U.S. House seat that has been unoccupied since March. This contest, once decided, will affect the already tight Republican hold on the House majority.

Menefee, who serves as Harris County’s chief civil attorney, and Edwards, a past member of the Houston City Council, were unable to secure more than 50% of the vote in a field crowded with 16 hopefuls. Consequently, the race will proceed to a runoff, anticipated to occur early next year.

The ultimate victor will complete the term of the late Democratic Representative Sylvester Turner. Turner passed away two months after assuming office for the predominantly Democratic 18th Congressional District.

After Turner’s passing, Republican Governor Greg Abbott justified the delay in calling a special election until November, citing the need for Houston election officials to adequately prepare. This decision drew criticism from Democrats, who accused Abbott of stalling to benefit his party’s majority in the House.

The election has introduced some confusion in the 18th Congressional District, especially as many voters will find themselves in a different district next year due to a redistricting initiative led by former President Donald Trump aimed at increasing Republican seats.

Currently, Republicans maintain a narrow seven-seat advantage in the House, standing at 219-212, with four seats vacant, including the one in Houston. While Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva recently won a special election in a strongly Democratic area along the Mexico border, she has not yet been sworn in. A reduced majority limits the strategic flexibility for Republican leaders.

Menefee ousted an incumbent in 2020 to become Harris County’s first Black county attorney, representing it in civil cases, and he has joined legal challenges of Trump’s executive orders on immigration.

Edwards served four years on the council starting in 2016. She ran for U.S. Senate in 2020 but finished fifth in a 12-person primary. She unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in the 2024 primary, and when Lee died that July, local Democrats narrowly nominated Turner over Edwards as Lee’s replacement.

Among other candidates was George Foreman IV, the son and namesake of the late heavyweight boxing champion.

The current 18th District is solidly Democratic and spirals from northeast Houston through downtown, back up to northwest Houston and east again, until its two ends come close to forming a doughnut. Non-Hispanic whites make up about 23% of its voting-age citizens, though no single group has a majority.

The redrawn 18th stretches from suburbs southwest of Houston diagonally through the city and past its northeast limits. A little more than 50% of voting-age citizens are Black, which critics say is not a big enough majority for them to determine who gets elected.

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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.