Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee’s decision to announce his candidacy for the vacant Congressional District 18 seat automatically triggered his resignation, and local Republicans already are campaigning for the candidate he beat last November to take over his job.
The Texas Constitution contains a provision that prohibits certain local officials from running for an office other than the one they currently hold. That provision states that any declaration of candidacy “shall constitute an automatic resignation of the office.”
Menefee’s decision to file a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission Saturday night, just months into his second, four-year term, triggered that provision automatically.
It now falls to the Harris County Commissioners Court to appoint a new county attorney that will hold the office until an election can be held. All five members of the court declined to comment or did not respond to a request to comment on Monday.
The Constitution does not set a deadline for Commissioners Court to make such an appointment, but Harris County Republicans on Monday called for the court to select local attorney and former county civil court judge Jacqueline Lucci Smith, the GOP candidate who lost to Menefee by just 17,000 votes in November.
“With Menefee now abandoning his office just three months into the term, it is the duty of Commissioners Court to respect the will of the more than 700,000 Harris County voters who cast their vote for Lucci Smith by appointing her to the position rather than arbitrarily selecting an appointee of their choosing who has not been vetted by voters,” the Harris County Republican Party wrote in a statement Monday.
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In the meantime, the office is not truly vacant. The Texas Constitution allows for the office’s occupant to “holdover” until a replacement is appointed, Deputy County Attorney Jonathan Fombonne said.
“Nothing changes as far as we’re concerned,” Fombonne said. “We’re going to keep doing the good work we’ve been doing for the last four years until someone tells us we can’t.”
In a statement Monday, Menefee also assured the public his office — which defends county officials against lawsuits and provides legal advice to the local government — would continue to operate without disruption.
“The county attorney’s office is filled with talented, selfless public servants,” Menefee wrote. “It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve alongside them. I have no doubt that the office will continue to provide the same level of service to the county and its residents moving forward.”
Menefee, 36, became the county’s youngest ever and first Black county attorney when he was elected in 2020. He since has made headlines throughout much of his time in office battling state Republicans in court over a host of issues prioritized by the Democrat-dominated Commissioners Court and pilloried by conservatives, including a proposed guaranteed income program. Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in office in January, he has joined several lawsuits against the administration, including one to block an executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship and another to stop federal funding freezes.
Whoever is appointed by Commissioners Court, which is made up of four Democrats and one Republican, will be county attorney until voters can weigh in during the November 2026 general election. The winner of that race will secure only a two-year term until the office returns to its normal election schedule in November 2028.
The process is the same as the one that saw now-Houston Controller Chris Hollins serve as county clerk in 2020, after being appointed to the role by Commissioners Court following the resignation of Diane Trautman. Teneshia Hudspeth then ran for and won the seat in 2020, before winning reelection two years later. Hudspeth now is serving a four-year term that runs through 2026.
In an interview Monday, Lucci Smith, who served as assistant county attorney from 1998 until 2001, expressed interest in an appointment to the role by Commissioners Court and declared her early candidacy for the 2026 election.
“I ran for the office because I loved that job. I loved working with all the different people in Harris County,” Lucci Smith said. “The county attorney position is something that I’ve been interested in for a very long time.”
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Just months after losing an election to him, Lucci Smith was critical of Menefee’s decision to file for the race and trigger the resignation clause.
“I think it’s unfortunate that I didn’t win because then (Menefee) would have been free to do what he wanted to do and the citizens of Harris County would have been protected,” Lucci Smith said. “That being said, I will absolutely run again in 2026.”
The carousel of local vacancies began earlier this month when U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner, Houston’s former mayor, died in office March 5.
Turner’s death opened a vacancy in a famed congressional district previously occupied by civil rights trailblazers Sheila Jackson Lee, Mickey Leland and Barbara Jordan.
Menefee, former Jackson Lee advisor Isaiah Martin and Fifth Ward community advocate James Joseph so far have filed as Democrats to run for the seat in a special election that has yet to be called by Gov. Greg Abbott. Former City Council member Amanda Edwards, who ran in the Democratic Primary for the seat in 2024, has announced plans for a “major” announcement concerning the election on Wednesday, and several other local Democrats are said to be considering their own campaigns.
It is unclear when the special election for the Congressional term running through 2026 will be held. The Texas Constitution gives Abbott the ability to call it at his discretion, and it must be held on a uniform election date at least 36 days after Abbott’s call. The deadline is fast approaching for the election to be able to be held on the next uniform election date on May 4. The only other one this year is in November.
Menefee said he was running for the seat to serve as a fighter against the Republican Party’s dominance in the federal government.
“I’m running for Congress in #TX18 because working families need a fighter in Washington,” Menefee wrote in a Monday social media post announcing his candidacy. “I’ve taken on MAGA Republicans, corporate polluters, scammers, and the Trump-Musk administration — and I’m ready to keep fighting for you.”
Menefee is hoping to position himself as the early frontrunner in the race, rolling out Monday morning a series of endorsements and a glittering New York Times profile on his candidacy.
Erica Lee Carter, Jackson Lee’s daughter who won a special election to serve out the remaining weeks of her mother’s vacant term in 2024, said Monday she was endorsing Menefee in the race. Lee Carter had been thought of as a potential candidate in the race, which she acknowledged in a statement Monday endorsing Menefee.
The theme of vocal resistance to Trump and Congressional Republicans appears likely to define the race.
In an interview Monday, Martin, 26, said the congressional district needs a young voice capable of generating grass-roots support to better resist Trump’s policies.
“I think it’s time for someone in this seat to follow the legacy of someone like Congresswoman Jackson Lee and Congressman Turner and be a fighter,” Martin said.
Martin said his agenda will be focused on turning up the heat on Republicans seeking to cut funding to social services like Medicare and Medicaid through online advocacy and procedural moves in Congress.
“Americans want an alternative to the crazy austerity that the Republicans are pushing that will not do anything for anybody’s lives, that are making people poor, that are destroying their retirement accounts and making it difficult for them to live,” Martin said.