The 18th Congressional District in Houston has been without representation in Washington for nearly a year, following the death of U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner in March. With approximately 400,000 registered voters, the district is now gearing up for a special election runoff between two Democratic candidates: former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards and former Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee.<\/p>\n
Early voting for the January 31 special election started on Wednesday, with 17 early voting sites available across the county. On the first day, a total of 2,126 in-person ballots were cast, and 1,895 voters submitted ballots by mail. This means that only about 1% of the registered voters in the district had cast their ballots by the end of the first day of early voting.<\/p>\n
Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth emphasized the importance of voting in this special election, stating, "I hope that Congressional District 18 voters are listening and know exactly how important this is to have representation." With the district having been represented by a Black Democrat for over 50 years, the outcome of this election will be crucial in determining the future of the district.<\/p>\n
Early voting will continue through Tuesday, January 27, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day, except for Sunday, January 25, when voting centers will be open from noon to 7 p.m. On Election Day, Saturday, January 31, polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Houston region is expected to experience freezing weather and potentially icy road conditions on some of these days, which may affect voter turnout.<\/p>\n
The 18th Congressional District includes parts of Houston and has been represented by notable figures such as Barbara Jordan and Sheila Jackson Lee. The district has been a stronghold for Black Democrats, and the outcome of this election will be closely watched. The winner of the special election will complete Turner’s unexpired term through the end of the year and will then have to defend the seat in a contested Democratic primary in March.<\/p>\n
The March primary will feature a new field of candidates, including U.S. Rep. Al Green, who is switching to the 18th District due to redistricting. The new congressional boundaries will be implemented for the March primaries, and voters should be aware of these changes. As Hudspeth noted, "This special election is for the previous lines of CD 18… the new lines will not be implemented until the March primaries."<\/p>\n
The special election in the 18th Congressional District is a critical moment for the community, and it is essential that voters make their voices heard. With the district’s rich history of representation and the upcoming changes to the congressional boundaries, the outcome of this election will have significant implications for the future of the district. Voters are encouraged to participate in the early voting process or cast their ballots on Election Day to ensure that their voices are represented in Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to the Special Election The 18th Congressional District in Houston has been without representation in Washington for nearly a year, following the death of U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner in March. With approximately 400,000 registered voters, the district is now gearing up for a special election runoff between two Democratic candidates: former Houston City Council […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-weather"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.houstonpublicmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/14123855\/Image-31-1500x1373.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12995"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12998,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12995\/revisions\/12998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/houston\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}