State of H-Town is a weekly column wrapping up the latest in Houston-area politics.
Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee has had his eye on higher office for a while now.
Menefee made a name for himself during his first term in office fighting for environmental justice and defending against Republican lawsuits targeting some of the county’s liberal priorities.
In an interview last week about the launch of his campaign for the Congressional District 18 seat left vacant by Sylvester Turner’s death, the 36-year-old said he had considered running for the seat last fall. At that time, a precinct chair election was taking place to replace the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee on the November General Election ballot as the Democratic Party nominee.
Menefee endorsed Turner in that contest, and the former Houston mayor coasted to victory in the November election. Menefee went on to narrowly win election to a second, four-year term as county attorney.
All the while, Menefee said he kept his mind open to other opportunities.
“This is something that I had talked to Sylvester himself about, in fact, as well as a myriad of other people months and months and months ago,” Menefee said of his run for the District 18 seat.
Since beginning his second term as county attorney, Menefee has kept his name in the news as pretty much the only city or county elected Democrat publicly pushing back on Trump administration policies that could affect the region.
In February, he filed a brief in support of a lawsuit to block Trump funding cuts to the National Institute of Health, citing potential impacts on Houston’s medical center. Since then, he has joined a lawsuit to block the administration’s efforts to lay off large swaths of the federal workforce, as well as a lawsuit to defend Medicaid recipients’ ability to use Planned Parenthood as a medical provider.
Following Turner’s passing on March 5, Menefee said he took time to grieve before filing his statement of candidacy the day of the late congressman’s funeral. He announced it publicly two days later, along with a host of endorsements from local and state Democrats.
Menefee’s adversarial relationship with statewide and national Republicans is not out of the ordinary for the lawyer for a large, Democratic-controlled county in a red state. It also provided a platform for him to pitch himself to voters as a fighter against Republican policies.
Menefee’s opponent in the November election, Jacqueline Lucci Smith, suggested his legal battles with Republicans was a political strategy.
“(Menefee) saw it as his job to sue Republicans to make a name for himself,” Lucci Smith said.
A reprieve
The county attorney will get to keep his current job following a decision by Commissioners Court Thursday.
Under state law, Menefee automatically resigned when he filed to run for Congress. A different law, however, allows a person to remain in office until a successor has been appointed.
Commissioners Court could have appointed Menefee’s successor Thursday, but opted instead to keep him in the post until Gov. Greg Abbott schedules the special election for CD-18.
Abbott is unlikely to do so anytime soon. Republicans hold a slim majority in the U.S. House and Turner’s death removes a Democrat from the equation. Abbott conceivably could put off the special election until next year.
The Texas Constitution only requires that the special election be held on a uniform election date at least 36 days after the governor’s call. The next uniform election date is Nov. 4.
‘Here we go again’
Menefee was just one of a host of local politicians quietly planning bids for the Congressional seat in the days after Turner’s death.
Within hours of the news breaking, influential grass-roots Democrats began fielding calls from interested parties and their supporters.
“Here we go again,” said Linda Bell-Robinson, a retiree and precinct chair who oversaw proceedings during the vote last summer to select Turner as the 2024 Democratic nominee for Congressional District 18. “At least let us bury him until you start campaigning.”
While most kept their moves out of public view with one-on-one conversations, one lesser-known candidate blasted his intentions out in a campaign text.
“RIP Mayor Turner. Vote Kevin Dural,” read the text punctuated with a dove emoji that was received by local Democrats the afternoon Turner died.
Dural, a 26-year-old political unknown in Houston, ran as an independent write-in candidate last November, receiving 14 votes. He described himself as a moderate with a libertarian streak but said he intended to run as a Democrat to “better represent the district.”
Dural said he only intended to send out condolences to Turner’s family as he began a “preparatory phase” for his eventual campaign. He has since filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission.
The awkwardness of timing a campaign launch during a week of memorials for Turner was on full display last week when Houston At-Large Councilmember Letitia Plummer, who announced her own interest in the seat, suggested Menefee was aware of Turner’s failing health long before his death and used that time to line up endorsements.
“That was planned way beforehand, which to me asks the question, did we know something was wrong with Turner? Was (Menefee) already deemed as the next person to take that seat?” Plummer asked.
Menefee flatly rejected Plummer’s insinuation.
Campaign lawsuit
Also within the first week of campaigning, another one of the handful of announced candidates was sued by a Washington, D.C.-based campaign contractor that claimed he had not paid for services.
Isaiah Martin, a former advisor to Jackson Lee, was briefly a candidate for her Congressional seat in 2023, but dropped out of the race after Jackson Lee lost her bid for mayor of Houston and decided to run for reelection to Congress. During that campaign, Martin contracted Grassroots Analytics for assistance with text messaging and fundraising services, according to the lawsuit.
The suit claims the company was never paid by Martin’s campaign, a charge Martin does not deny. Martin said the company breached its contract with his campaign, when it began working for one of his opponents without notifying him. He alleged the company is again working for one of his opponents in the current race, although he declined to name the candidate.
Federal Election Commission data shows payments from Amanda Edwards’ campaign to the company as early as September 2023. Edwards, a former at-large Houston city council member, lost to Jackson Lee in the 2024 Democratic primary. Last Wednesday, the day before the lawsuit was filed, she announced a new campaign for the seat.
The race is not even two weeks old, but it promises to be a long year.
Residents of Congressional District 18 can expect candidates to spend the better part of 2025 seeking their vote, ahead of the next available uniform election date in November, followed by a likely December runoff election.
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