Cane-wielding Al Green forced into Texas Democratic primary runoff by House’s newest member

Cane-wielding Rep. Al Green will need to win a May runoff against fellow Rep. Christian Menefee to keep his seat in Congress beyond next January.

Menefee, 37, edged Green by less than two percentage points in Tuesday’s primary for the 18th Congressional District, but failed to reach the 50% threshold required to avoid a second contest May 26.

Menefee, the newest member of the House, was backed by former Democratic National Committee vice chair David Hogg as part of his ongoing effort to oust members of the party’s old guard.

Menefee, a former Harris County attorney, won a special election Jan. 31 to replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas), who passed away on March 5, 2025, after just two months in office.

Menefee and Green were forced to compete in a rare all-incumbent primary after Texas’ Republican-controlled legislature drew new maps that placed sections of Green’s former 9th Congressional District into Menefee’s 18th.

The 18th District, which covers much of downtown and inner-city Houston, has seen each of its last two representatives die in office, with Sheila Jackson Lee succumbing to pancreatic cancer in July 2024.

Green, 78, has served in the House for more than 20 years and has mainly made headlines by antagonizing President Trump — repeatedly bringing articles of impeachment and getting ejected from the House chamber for disrupting the Republican’s past two addresses to Congress.

Early in Trump’s 2025 speech, Green stood and began waving his cane and shouting, “You don’t have a mandate,” following Trump’s 2024 victory in both the popular vote and Electoral College.

The 11-term congressman was subsequently escorted out of the chamber by the House sergeant-at-arms at Speaker Mike Johnson’s direction.

Green also heckled Trump during this year’s State of the Union address before being led from the lower chamber again.

The 78-year-old refused to sit while the president delivered the address and brandished a sign that said “Black people aren’t apes!,” in reference to a since-deleted video on Trump’s Truth Social that alleged 2020 election interference but also included a clip depicting former President Barack Obama and ex-first lady Michelle Obama as primates.

The winner of the runoff will be heavily favored to defeat Republican Ronald Whitfield in the Nov. 3 general election.