Less Noise, More Substance: TX-18 Candidates Talk Policy at The Luke Church
Amanda Edwards, Christian Menefee
By 2LOUD Magazine
Inside The Luke Church, the TX-18 Congressional District runoff debate unfolded with a sense of urgency that felt less like campaign theater and more like a civic checkpoint. Amanda Edwards and Christian Menefee weren’t just vying for votes—they were making the case for how power should show up for Houston’s most vulnerable communities.
Amanda Edwards leaned heavily on experience and institutional fluency. Her answers carried the polish of someone deeply familiar with federal systems—finance, FEMA restoration, inflation reduction, and legislative pathways that bring tangible dollars back home. She cited her work helping Humble ISD keep a school-based health clinic open and referenced her role in legislation aimed at easing economic pressure on working families. Her delivery was deliberate and polished, signaling deep familiarity with policy and the mechanics of government; her message was clear, she knows how to move resources through government and into communities that need them.
Christian Menefee, by contrast, grounded his arguments in proximity. “We’re going to be outside,” he said—signaling a leadership style rooted in access and presence. Drawing from personal family experience, Menefee addressed the alarming mortality rates among Black women and the cultural disconnect that often exists in healthcare. He questioned why universal healthcare remains elusive in the U.S. while other nations have solved it, and tied rising anxiety among young people to social media pressures and underfunded mental health services.
Menefee also outlined a broader progressive agenda: eliminating Trump-era tariffs, raising the minimum wage, expanding first-time homebuyer assistance, restoring EPA funding to clean up Black and brown neighborhoods, and translating his record as Harris County Attorney into congressional action.
Pastor Dr. Timothy Sloan
Pastor Dr. Timothy Sloan anchored the evening with moral clarity, reminding the audience that politics without people at the center is just performance.
What emerged wasn’t a viral moment—it was a substantive one. Two candidates, two approaches, one district listening closely. In TX-18, the conversation is shifting from who speaks the loudest to who shows up prepared to govern.
2LOUD post debate interviews available on our social media @2loudmag.
