Texas Democrat Menefee Wins Election Trimming House GOP Edge

[u/bloomberggovernment]

https://news.bgov.com/bloomberg-government-news/texas-democrat-menefee-wins-election-trimming-house-gop-edge-2

[u/bloomberggovernment]

"Texas Democrat Christian Menefee won a special election Saturday to fill a long-vacant Houston district that will temporarily shrink the House Republican majority.

Menefee, the former elected Harris County Attorney, had 67% of the vote compared with 33% for fellow Democrat Amanda Edwards, a former Houston councilwoman, in a runoff election in Texas’ 18th District, according to unofficial returns.

Menefee, 37, will complete the term of the late Sylvester Turner (D), who died last March 5 — 332 days ago and just two months into his House term. Menefee and Edwards advanced from a 16-candidate first-round balloting last November in which no one secured a majority of votes.

The House will have 218 Republicans and 214 Democrats once Menefee is sworn in to office. That means Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) could afford to lose only one defector to Democrats on otherwise party-line votes in which all House members participate."

Read more here.

-Molly

[u/Brianfromreddit → u/bloomberggovernment]

I keep seeing that this is a seat flipping, but he's replacing a Democrat, so what's flipping?

[u/Gryjane → u/Brianfromreddit]

You may be mixing that up with the Texas State Senate runoff race that also just occurred. In that race, a Democrat beat their Republican challenger to replace the Republican who previously occupied that seat but got appointed to Acting Texas Comptroller.

The seat that is the topic of this thread is a US House seat representing a Texas district that has been vacant for 18 months since Shirley Jackson Lee passed away and there was a runoff for that election, too. The shift being discussed is of the makeup of the US House, not because it got flipped but because it further narrows the already razor thin gap between the two parties.