Veteran Texas congressman Al Green beaten in Democratic primary runoff

Christian Menefee wins 18th district race after Republican gerrymandering carved up Green’s reliably Democratic seat

Christian Menefee, a freshman Democratic US representative, beat veteran congressman Al Green on Tuesday in a fierce runoff that was the product of Republican gerrymandering.

Last year, the Republican-dominated Texas legislature unveiled a congressional map designed to flip seats in the GOP’s favor. Donald Trump had urged the state’s lawmakers to safeguard the party’s congressional majority.

Under the new map, Green, a congressional fixture for over two decades and a staunch Trump critic, saw his reliably Democratic ninth district effectively eliminated . He announced a bid for the 18th district in November.

Menefee was sworn into the seat in January, after winning a special election to replace the late US representative Sylvester Turner.

On the campaign trail, Green sought to link Menefee with big-money politics, accusing his challenger of being aligned with “Trump crypto cronies”, Houston Public Media reported .

Green’s protests of the Trump administration have garnered national attention in recent years.

In February, he was ejected from the president’s State of the Union address after holding a sign that read “Black people aren’t apes!” It was a counter to Trump sharing a racist AI-generated video where Barack and Michelle Obama were depicted as the simians.