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Former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards has ended her campaign for Texas’ 18th Congressional District.

Edwards’ Monday announcement comes a week after she lost decisively to former Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee in a special election runoff to serve out the remainder of Rep. Sylvester Turner’s term, who died in March 2025. Edwards and Menefee, both Democrats, were set to face off again in the March 3 primary for the seat’s full term.

In her announcement, Edwards said she would relaunch her Do Something Houston initiative, which aims to increase voter registration ahead of the midterms by connecting with voters at churches and restaurants.

“My commitment to serving and advocating for the community remains unchanged,” Edwards’ announcement read. “I cannot thank you enough for working with me to elevate people over politics and to deliver results for our community.”

Edwards’ name will still appear on the March 3 primary ballot due to filing deadlines.

Residents in the 18th Congressional District faced nearly a year without representation after Gov. Greg Abbott set a special election for the seat in November, eight months after Turner died. That race went to a runoff in January after none of the 16 candidates secured the 50% of votes needed to win the seat outright. Turner’s death occurred just two months into his first term and came after the death of the district’s longtime representative, Sheila Jackson Lee, who died in July 2024.

The January runoff saw extremely low voter turnout — fewer than 14,000 early votes and mail ballots were tallied compared to almost 39,000 in the first round of the special election in November. Voters expressed confusion about why the special election was taking place and who was eligible to vote after the boundaries were redrawn in favor of the GOP, which will likely continue as candidates continue campaigning.

Menefee will face Rep. Al Green in the March primary, who currently represents Texas’ 9th District. Green, who has been in Congress for more than 20 years, was drawn out of his seat in 2025 after a GOP-led effort reconfigured Texas’ congressional map to pick up more Republican representatives.

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Olivia Borgula is a Washington, D.C.-based reporting fellow covering the Texas congressional delegation from Capitol Hill. Olivia is a senior at the University of Maryland pursuing dual degrees in journalism...