Rep. Al Green, the 78-year-old Texas Democrat who built his late-career brand almost entirely on confrontations with President Trump, lost his primary runoff to fellow Democrat Christian Menefee in Houston's 18th Congressional District. Decision Desk HQ projected Menefee the winner, and Just The News reported the margin was lopsided, 68 percent to 31 percent, a decisive rejection by Green's own party voters.
The result ends a House career that stretched more than two decades. It also closes one of the more theatrical chapters in recent congressional history, one defined less by legislation than by repeated impeachment filings and public disruptions of presidential addresses.
Menefee, 37, now heads into a general election he is almost certain to win. The Cook Political Report rates the redrawn 18th District as solidly Democratic. Barring a political earthquake, Houston will send a new, younger face to Washington this fall.
Green did not choose this fight. Texas Republicans advanced a GOP-friendly redistricting map that created multiple new pickup opportunities for the party ahead of the midterms. The redraw turned Green's original 9th Congressional District into far more Republican-friendly territory, as The Hill reported, forcing him to seek reelection in the reconfigured 18th District instead.
That district already had a representative. Menefee won a special election in January to fill the remainder of the late Rep. Sylvester Turner's seat. So redistricting did what Green's opponents in past elections could not, it put two sitting Democratic incumbents on the same ballot.
Neither candidate cleared 50 percent in the March 3 primary, triggering the runoff. Fox News noted that Menefee took 46 percent of the initial primary vote to Green's 44.2 percent. The gap only widened in the runoff.
Democrats in California, meanwhile, developed their own redistricting plan designed to counter the Texas changes, part of a national back-and-forth over mid-decade map-drawing that has reshaped competitive districts in both parties' strongholds. The broader Texas political landscape remains a battleground, but this particular seat was never in doubt for Republicans. The real contest was always inside the Democratic primary.
Green served in the House since 2005. But his national profile rested on a single theme: opposition to Donald Trump. He filed articles of impeachment against Trump seven times, Newsmax reported, making him one of the most persistent impeachment advocates in modern congressional history.
The confrontations went beyond paperwork. Green was censured by the House in March 2025 after repeatedly interrupting Trump's address to a joint session of Congress, waving his cane while the president spoke. Speaker Mike Johnson directed the House sergeant-at-arms to escort Green from the chamber.
That was not the last incident. Green was escorted out of Trump's State of the Union address this year as well. The pattern was unmistakable: Green treated presidential addresses as stages for protest, and the House eventually responded with formal discipline.
The New York Post reported that after the 2025 removal, Green stood and began shouting, "You don't have a mandate," referencing Trump's 2024 victory. Green later said he would "do it again," telling reporters, "At some point, you have to confront him face-to-face."
The willingness to make a scene earned Green cable-news bookings. What it did not earn him was enough goodwill with voters to survive a primary challenge from a younger opponent who had not made disruption his calling card.
The age gap between the two candidates, 41 years, mirrored a broader tension inside the Democratic Party in Texas. Both Sylvester Turner and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, longtime Houston-area Democrats, died in recent years. Their departures opened seats that younger candidates filled quickly.
Menefee's special-election win in January showed he could mobilize voters in the district. The runoff confirmed it was not a fluke. A 68-to-31 margin is not a close call. It is a repudiation.
Green's age and tenure became liabilities rather than assets. Voters in the 18th District apparently decided that two decades of seniority mattered less than fresh representation. The fate of prominent Trump antagonists has not always been kind, and Green now joins a growing list of figures whose political identities were consumed by their opposition to one man.
While Green lost his Democratic runoff, Republican candidates endorsed by President Trump had a strong night in Texas. Newsmax reported that Jon Bonck won his Texas House runoff with 65.4 percent of the vote, and Carlos De La Cruz took his race with 57.5 percent. Both carried Trump's endorsement.
The contrast is worth noting. Trump's political influence within the GOP continues to translate into tangible electoral results. Green's anti-Trump brand, by contrast, could not even hold a safe Democratic seat against a first-term colleague.
The redistricting fight that forced Green into this race was itself a product of Republican strength in Texas. GOP mapmakers drew lines that protected and expanded their advantages. Democrats responded with counter-redistricting in California, but in Texas, the immediate effect was to compress Democratic incumbents into fewer districts, and force them to run against each other.
That dynamic has played out across the country wherever one party controls the redistricting process. In Texas, it cost a 20-year incumbent his career. Governor Greg Abbott's aggressive courtship of business and political capital has reinforced the state's rightward tilt, and the redistricting map reflects that confidence.
Menefee heads into the fall general election as the prohibitive favorite. The 18th District's solidly Democratic rating means the real election was the one that just ended. Barring an extraordinary shift, Menefee will take office as one of the youngest members of the Texas delegation.
For Green, the loss closes a chapter that began with genuine policy disagreements and ended with cane-waving spectacles on the House floor. Seven impeachment filings. A formal censure. Two forced removals from presidential addresses. And now, a 37-point primary defeat at the hands of his own party's voters.
The post-presidency political landscape is shifting for Democrats across the South, and Houston just sent its own signal about the direction it prefers.
Voters have a way of telling politicians when the act has run its course. Green got the message, 68 to 31.
