A veteran Texas Democrat known for theatrics against President Donald Trump is now fighting for his political survival after being forced into a runoff following a disappointing primary performance.
According to the Daily Caller, Democratic Rep. Al Green, 79, captured just 44.2% of the vote in Tuesdays primary, trailing fellow Democrat Rep. Christian Menefee, 37, who secured 46.1% with more than 95% of ballots tallied, the Associated Press reported. Because neither candidate crossed the 50% threshold, the two will meet again in a head-to-head runoff on May 26, setting up an intraparty clash between an aging progressive firebrand and a younger, equally left-wing challenger.
Menefee only recently arrived in Congress, winning a late January special election to fill the 18th District seat left vacant by the death of Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner. Green, who has represented the neighboring 9th District since 2004, opted to run against Menefee after Texas new, more GOP-friendly House map transformed his own district into a safe Republican seat, underscoring how redistricting has strengthened conservative prospects in the state.
Greens notoriety has grown less from legislative accomplishments than from his public outbursts directed at President Trump. During the 2026 State of the Union, he was removed from the House chamber after brandishing a sign that read, Black people arent monkeys, a stunt he claimed was a protest of an artificial intelligence video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes that had appeared on Trumps Truth Social account for nearly 12 hours.
The Texas Democrat had already been ejected from the floor a year earlier during Trumps 2025 joint address to Congress, when he heckled the president and dramatically shook his cane at him. That episode prompted a rare bipartisan rebuke, with the House voting 224-198 to censure Green, including support from 10 Democrats who evidently viewed his conduct as beyond the pale.
Green escalated his confrontation with the White House in December 2025 by filing articles of impeachment against Trump. He did so after the president accused six Democratic lawmakers of seditious behavior for posting a video urging members of the military to refuse illegal orders, but the House overwhelmingly moved to table the effort in a 237-140 vote, with 47 Democrats pointedly voting present.
Menefee, by contrast, has built his profile through aggressive litigation and hard-left policy positions rather than floor theatrics, though his ideology is no less radical. As Harris County attorney, he clashed with Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton now one of two GOP Senate candidates headed to a May 26 runoff over the countys use of public funds to provide legal defense for illegal immigrants.
Paxton sued Harris County in November 2025, arguing that such expenditures violated the Texas Constitution and improperly diverted taxpayer dollars. The court rejected the case, and Menefee claimed the ruling affirmed the countys authority to protect all residents, a formulation critics say blurs the line between citizens and noncitizens while prioritizing migrants over taxpayers.
In Congress, Menefee has continued to champion a maximalist progressive agenda on immigration and national security. The 37-year-old has pushed to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and has demanded that Immigration and Customs Enforcement be abolished and torn down to studs, positions that place him firmly on the far-left fringe even within the Democratic Party.
Menefees campaign has been buoyed by endorsements from some of the partys most prominent liberal figures, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who recently failed in her own Democratic Senate primary bid. He has also been backed by former Rep. Beto ORourke and Erica Lee Carter, daughter of the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who represented the 18th District from 1995 until her death in 2024, leaving Democratic voters to choose between two candidates whose records reflect the partys ongoing drift away from law-and-order priorities and toward open-borders activism.
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