Democrat Christian Menefee won a special election in Texas for a U.S. House seat on Saturday, narrowing the Republican's already slim majority in the House. Menefee, the Harris County attorney, defeated Amanda Edwards, a former Houston City Council member, in a runoff election to fill the seat previously held by the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, a former Houston mayor, who died in March 2025, according to CBS News and ABC News.
The seat, representing a heavily Democratic district in Houston, had been vacant for nearly a year. Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott scheduled the first round of voting in November. Menefee and Edwards advanced to the runoff after being the top vote-getters in a 16-candidate, all-parties primary because no candidate won a majority of the vote, CBS News reported. In his victory speech, Menefee told President Trump that the Democratic district "topples corrupt presidencies," according to ABC News.
Meanwhile, amid a partial government shutdown that went into effect Saturday, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats would not join Republicans in expediting the passage of the Senate-passed funding package, ABC News reported. Jeffries confirmed the Democrats' position in an interview Saturday on MSNOW, suggesting the partial shutdown is expected to last longer than first anticipated. The Senate voted Friday to separate out extended funding for the Department of Homeland Security after reaching a deal with the White House.
In immigration news, a federal judge in Texas ordered the release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, asylum seekers who were arrested last week in Minnesota. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered the boy and his father released from the immigration detention center at Dilley "as soon as practicable" but no later than Feb. 3, ABC News reported. "Any possible or anticipated removal or transfer of Petitioners under this present detention is prohibited," the judge wrote in his order, according to a screenshot of the order obtained by ABC News.
In other news, President Donald Trump said Saturday he believes Iran is negotiating "seriously" with the U.S., stressing that he hopes an "acceptable" deal can be brokered, Fox News reported. The president's comments were made as he reportedly weighs options on a possible military strike on Iran amid widespread protests and a violent crackdown in the country. When asked by a reporter aboard Air Force One whether he had decided on a strike against Iran, Trump responded, "I certainly can't tell you."
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