Christian Menefee, a freshman Democratic US representative, defeated veteran congressman Al Green in a fiercely contested primary runoff in Texas’s 18th congressional district on Tuesday. The result was largely attributed to Republican-led gerrymandering that dismantled Green’s previous stronghold.
Green, a staunch critic of Donald Trump who has served in Congress for over two decades, saw his reliably Democratic ninth district effectively erased last year when the Republican-dominated Texas legislature unveiled a new congressional map. Trump had urged state lawmakers to design the map to favour the GOP and protect its majority in the House.
Menefee, who was sworn into the seat in January after winning a special election to replace the late US representative Sylvester Turner, campaigned on a platform of progressive reform. During the race, Green attempted to link Menefee to big-money politics, accusing him of being aligned with “Trump crypto cronies”, according to Houston Public Media.
Green’s protests against the Trump administration have drawn national attention. In February, he was ejected from the president’s State of the Union address after holding a sign reading “Black people aren’t apes!” in response to Trump sharing a racist AI-generated video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as simians.
