The political fight over Texas’ new congressional map was supposed to reshape the balance of power in Washington. Instead, it has reshaped Houston.
What began as a Republican-led redistricting push to strengthen GOP seats has triggered an unexpected Democratic showdown in the heart of Black Houston. A newly redrawn District 18 now places freshman U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee and longtime incumbent U.S. Rep. Al Green on the same primary ballot, forcing voters to choose between generational change and seasoned seniority.
Menefee, who just took office after winning a special election to fill the late Rep. Sylvester Turner’s seat in January, is now running for a full term in a district made up largely of new voters under the revised map. Meanwhile, Green, one of the most senior members of Texas’ congressional delegation, is seeking reelection after the Legislature reconfigured his longtime district to lean more Republican, prompting his move into the redrawn 18th.
The Defender asked both candidates to make their final case directly to voters ahead of Election Day.
Why now — and why you?
District 18 carries a powerful legacy, from Barbara Jordan to Mickey Leland to Sheila Jackson Lee to Sylvester Turner. It has long been a seat anchored in civil rights leadership and Black political power.
Why are you the right leader for this moment in Houston’s history, and what would you do differently from your opponent in your first year in office?
Christian Menefee: It doesn’t matter how much you go along to get along. What matters is your willingness to stand up, to fight strategically, and it’s going to actually deliver results for people. And that’s exactly what I did as County Attorney, was figure out ways to fight back against the Trump administration, against the Abbott administration, to make sure we have clean air and water, to protect our voting rights, to protect health care programs. That’s the type of fighting spirit we need in Washington, not performative fighting, not cosmetic fighting for cosmetic reasons, but fighting that’s actually going to yield results for the people who live in our communities. And I think I’m the only candidate that presents that. The only candidate who will step in on day one and be thoughtful, surgical in attacking the administration and protecting the rights of the people who live in our district.
Al Green: This race, at its essence, is about who has demonstrated the courage to confront President Trump face to face as I have in public forms. The latest time occurred last week during the State of the Union event, while my opponent was campaigning in Houston. I have the courage to stand up to the Trump crypto cronies that are aligned with my opponent and spending $1,500,000.00 in the Menefee republican funded campaign to defeat me. When courage counts, you can count on Al Green.
Wealth-Building in a District Still Recovering
District 18 includes working-class families, small business owners, seniors on fixed incomes, and communities still navigating the aftershocks of inflation, storms, and economic disruption.
What specific federal policies would you champion to expand wealth-building opportunities for Black Houstonians – whether through housing, small business access to capital, federal contracts, workforce training, or student debt relief?
Menefee: There used to be a time in this country where you could work forever. But right now, people aren’t able to do that. They’re still not making ends meet. If something happens to their health, it could set them back financially a decade, and they’re retiring much later. In some instances, they’re not retiring at all. What I’m going to do, every single thing I can do, is to put more money back in people’s pockets. That means increasing the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour so that folks don’t have to work three jobs just to be able to make ends meet. It means fighting for health care for every single person, single-payer universal health care so that nobody has to choose between putting food on the table and getting life-saving treatment. It means increasing the number of apprenticeship programs because right now we have an extreme shortage of folks in skilled labor jobs like plumbers, like electricians, like construction. The types of jobs that if you work for a good amount of time you can earn high six figures and be able to raise a family. It means doing all we can to make college affordable. My basic agenda is putting more money back in people’s pockets so that they can afford and enjoy America. The Trump administration and Republicans are running the opposite direction on that right now and I plan to try to rein them in and get policy passes to put more money back in people’s pockets.
Green: To increase wealth-building opportunities for Black Houstonians, we must address invidious discrimination in the financial services industry and help individuals achieve homeownership. To this end, I have introduced and sponsored many bills in Congress, including H.R. 166, the Fair Lending for All Act, a seminal piece of legislation that I have introduced to address discrimination in lending. This legislation would impose criminal penalties for discrimination in lending and would require the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to establish an Office of Fair Lending Testing to hold predatory institutions accountable. If we are to help Black Houstonians and other communities of color build wealth, we must root out this specific form of discrimination. I am also a proud co-sponsor of Rep. Maxine Waters’ H.R. 6771, the Housing Crisis Response Act, a crucial bill that would provide $150 billion to build nearly 1.4 million affordable homes. This bill would help address the racial wealth gap by investing in first-time, first-generation homebuyers, and it is long overdue.
Delivering Results in a Polarized Congress
Congress remains deeply divided, and bipartisan cooperation is increasingly rare.
What tangible results have you delivered — or can you realistically deliver — for District 18 despite gridlock in Washington? How do you measure effectiveness in this political climate?
Menefee: It’s about building one-on-one relationships. When I was the Harris County attorney, I was, of course, elected as a Democrat, but I got plenty of stuff done with Republicans. When cigarette companies were getting our kids hooked on vaping, I teamed up with the Attorney General of Texas, who is a Stone Cold Republican. We were able to go after those companies and get tens of millions of dollars to address those issues here in the state of Texas. When a large company was expanding a landfill more deeply into a historically black neighborhood on the north side of town, I teamed up with the Republican Commissioner, and we were able to stop that from happening. It’s about building relationships with people on a one-on-one basis, understanding that there are times where we’re going to disagree, and there are red lines that I’m going to draw on protection of my communities. But we have a relationship with someone, you can work with them on 30, 40, 50 percent of things, on which we do agree. But so much of politics now is folks looking for an opportunity to go viral, folks looking for an opportunity to be seen at the expense of their complaints, and it fractures those relationships so you don’t have the opportunity to work together to get stuff done. I’ve shown throughout my career that I’m somebody who can work with just about anybody, and I’ll be the same way in the new 18th as their congressman.
Green: Congress is deeply polarized, and gridlock makes progress challenging for those who do not know how to navigate its dynamics. Working with two US Republican Senators, I recommended and got three federal judges. My experience in Congress has caused me to deliver $100 million to the Greater Houston Area for floodwater mitigation, secure more than $350 million in local projects, and provide $10 billion for small businesses through my reauthorization of the State Small Business Credit Initiative Renewal Act. I also helped advance the first federally-funded police body cameras. An additional list of some of my many accomplishments is included below:
· 3 federal judges I recommended were nominated and confirmed: Alfred H. Bennett to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, George C. Hanks Jr. for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and Gregg J. Costa to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas as well as to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
· $10 billion in funding for small businesses through my reauthorization of the State Small Business Credit Initiative (The SSBCI) Renewal Act.
· $9 billion through the establishment of my Emergency Capital Investment Program (ECIP) to provide low- and moderate-income community financial institutions funding to support small businesses, as well as consumers, in their communities.
· $373,927,508 in local projects.
· $100 million in appropriations for my permanent codification of the Minority Business Development Agency through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
· $90 to $100 million for flood control within the district.
· $22.5 million for the first congressionally funded police body cameras.
· Millions for Texas Southern University’s National Transportation Security Center of Excellence.
· Historic passage of my Fair Lending for All Act in the House of Representatives, which imposes criminal penalties for intentional lender discrimination.
· Passage of my Reforming Disaster Recovery Act in the House, a bill which would codify the requirements and objectives of the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, which provides critical funding to those impacted by natural disasters and other extreme events.
· Passage of my Systemic Risk Authority Transparency Act in the House, a bill that requires more transparency from our banking regulators in the event of a bank failure.
· Supported passage of the PRO Act to strengthen workers’ rights to unionize and collectively bargain.
· Having a foundation for the historic impeachment of President Donald John Trump by bringing the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Articles of Impeachment against him to a vote.
· Having recently filed and brought new Articles of Impeachment to a vote, wherein most House Democrats (187) declined to halt proceedings through a motion to table.
· Passage in the House of H.Res.517 – my Historic Original Slavery Remembrance Day Resolution and introduced the Historic Original Slavery Remembrance Month Resolution, which call for the establishment of Slavery Remembrance Day and month in August of each year, similar to other Remembrance events for 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and the Holocaust.
· Introduced a resolution to create a Cabinet-level Department of Reconciliation to reconcile issues associated with invidious discrimination across the country.
· Passed a resolution through the House Honoring the NAACP.
· Passed a resolution through the House recognizing Black History Month.
· Passed a resolution through the House recognizing the hanging of nooses as a horrible act when used for the purpose of intimidation.
· Fought to protect the constitutional and human rights of all people, including undocumented persons within the United States.
· Introduced historic resolutions in the House recognizing: Palestine’s right to exist, John Brown, Nat Turner, Prince Hall, the 25th Army Corps, Harriet Tubman, June as LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Local law enforcement agencies, The American Jewish Committee, National Minority Health Month, and hospitalized Veterans.
Clearing up confusion – what voters should know
What’s one misconception voters may have about you — and what do you want them to understand before they cast their ballot?
Menefee: We’ve heard the argument that seniority matters. Seniority doesn’t matter in Donald Trump’s Washington. Donald Trump doesn’t believe in the standard rules of the road. This is a man who doesn’t abide by court orders, who doesn’t respect the constitution of the laws. And let’s be clear, this is not in Mike Johnson’s Congress. This is Donald Trump’s Congress. To the folks who would argue we need seniority, what is that seniority doing for our communities? Communities, many of which don’t have sidewalks, don’t have grocery stores, have massive illegal dumping issues. That seniority in Donald Trump’s DC isn’t flying. What is flying, we’re going to be strategic to go in, to have the important fights, to build the relationships necessary to get stuff done. I can’t think of examples because this member has been in Congress for 21 years. It has led to these three or four things that are better in our communities. No, instead, in Donald Trump’s Congress, in Donald Trump’s D.C., it is every person for themselves. And if you are not a strategic thinker, then we’re gonna have real challenges in bringing resources back home. And then the second point is, look, we’re going to have a changing of the guard at some point. So either the seniority conversation is going to happen today, it’s going to happen tomorrow, it’s going to happen another day. I have shown during my time as county attorney that you can drive me into a situation where I have no experience and still excel. When I took over the county attorney’s office, I had never managed more than five or six people. And I took over an office of 300 attorneys and staff, and we turned it into the formal fighting force in the state of Texas in protecting voting rights and standing for environmental justice and going after defraudsters and scammers who would target older black folks and taking their homes from them. I built that.
Green:
1. “I said I would not run.” This is totally false. I never said I would not run.
2. “I moved into the 18th congressional district to run.” This is not true. President Trump ordered Gov. Abbott to redraw Texas congressional district lines. The governor followed Trump’s orders and, in so doing, drew new lines with my home and my constituents in a New 18th congressional district. I didn’t move to District 18. Trump and Abbott moved District 18 to me and my constituents.
3. It is incorrect to believe that my opponent is the incumbent. This too is not true. There is no incumbent in the New 18th Congressional District.
Missed Votes
Green criticized Menefee for campaigning in Houston instead of returning to Washington to cast eight House roll-call votes following the recent State of the Union speech.
Green called out the absence, questioning whether representation means showing up for symbolic moments—or for legislative action.
Menefee, meanwhile, issued this response to the accusations: “It’s disappointing to see Congressman Green go negative in this campaign. Neither one of us asked to be running against each other: Trump and Governor Abbott redrew the congressional map mid-decade to weaken Black political power. That’s on them. But here we are, and I’m going to continue to conduct myself with the respect Congressman Green deserves as someone who has served this community for nearly 50 years. Trump and Abbott redrawing the maps means I had just 30 days from winning one election to being on the ballot again to represent a completely different side of town. Right now, I’m working around the clock to meet the new neighbors I’ll be serving – people Republicans tried to cut off from real representation. Members of Congress miss votes from time to time, and Congressman Green has missed hundreds over his career. Using it as an attack says more about where this campaign is headed than anything else. Voters across our communities know how hard I work for them. As the youngest Harris County Attorney in history, I stood up to Donald Trump and Greg Abbott, and won. I fought for our healthcare, our voting rights, and our neighborhoods. I outworked Trump and Abbott then, and I’ll outwork anyone for the people of this district now.”
