HOUSTON (AP) — In a special election on Tuesday night, Democrats Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards emerged as the top contenders in a race for a U.S. House seat, now headed to a runoff. This election is critical as it will fill a vacancy left open since March and could potentially tighten the GOP’s slim hold in the House once a victor takes office.

Christian Menefee, currently serving as Harris County’s chief civil attorney, and Amanda Edwards, a former member of the Houston City Council, were unable to secure over 50% of the votes in a field crowded with 16 candidates. As a result, the competition will proceed to a runoff anticipated to occur early next year.

The special election winner will complete the term of the late Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner, who passed away just two months into his tenure representing the predominantly Democratic 18th Congressional District.

After Turner’s untimely death, Republican Governor Greg Abbott opted to delay the special election until November. He justified the decision by claiming it allowed Houston election officials ample time to prepare. However, Democrats have criticized the postponement, accusing Abbott of attempting to bolster the Republican majority in the House.

The election process in the 18th Congressional District has been clouded by confusion, as many voters will find themselves casting ballots in a different district next year due to newly redrawn maps. These changes, driven by President Donald Trump, aim to increase Republican representation in the area.

Republicans currently hold a seven-seat majority in the House, 219-212, with four vacancies, including the Houston seat. Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva won a special election in September in a heavily Democratic district along the Mexico border, but she has not been sworn in yet. A narrower majority gives Republican leaders less room to maneuver.

Menefee ousted an incumbent in 2020 to become Harris County’s first Black county attorney, representing it in civil cases, and he has joined legal challenges of Trump’s executive orders on immigration.

Edwards served four years on the council starting in 2016. She ran for U.S. Senate in 2020 but finished fifth in a 12-person primary. She unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in the 2024 primary, and when Lee died that July, local Democrats narrowly nominated Turner over Edwards as Lee’s replacement.

Among other candidates was George Foreman IV, the son and namesake of the late heavyweight boxing champion.

The current 18th District is solidly Democratic and spirals from northeast Houston through downtown, back up to northwest Houston and east again, until its two ends come close to forming a doughnut. Non-Hispanic whites make up about 23% of its voting-age citizens, though no single group has a majority.

The redrawn 18th stretches from suburbs southwest of Houston diagonally through the city and past its northeast limits. A little more than 50% of voting-age citizens are Black, which critics say is not a big enough majority for them to determine who gets elected.

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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.