Texas Congressional District 9 Election 2026

Due to the Lone Star State’s mid-decade congressional redistricting efforts in 2025, the 2026 boundaries of Texas Congressional District 9 (TX-9) are considerably different than they were in 2024. The district now includes the Houston Ship Channel and portions of the east Houston region, including Pasadena and Liberty County. Once a Democratic stronghold represented by Congressman Al Green for more than two decades, TX-9 was redrawn as a Hispanic majority district favoring the Republican Party. 

The 2026 TX-9 general election candidates are Republican Alex Mealer and Democrat Leticia Gutierrez. Mealer is an Army veteran, a former oil and gas finance executive and a 2022 county judge candidate for Harris County. Gutierrez is an environmental advocate with experience in governmental and community relations. 

With control of Congress on the line, which of these candidates will prevail? And who are the U.S. Senate and gubernatorial frontrunners among likely voters in TX-9?

To explore these questions, the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston conducted a representative survey of voters who are expected to cast a ballot in the November 2026 Texas Congressional District 9 election. Likely voters were contacted via SMS text message and directed to an online survey platform with the option to answer the survey in English or Spanish. The survey was fielded between October 3 and October 7, 2026, and the overall sample population of 677 (margin of error of +/- 3.77%) likely voters in TX-9 was adjusted via multidimensional calibration weighting using demographic, historical electoral, and geographic benchmarks.

Highlights

Republican Alex Mealer is leading Democratic challenger Leticia Gutierrez by six points in the race for Texas’s 9th Congressional District, with support from 48% of likely voters, compared with 42% for Gutierrez.

42% of likely voters said they have a favorable opinion of Mealer, while 35% have an unfavorable opinion and 23% said they didn’t know enough about her to have an opinion. 

28% reported a favorable opinion of Gutierrez, while 33% have an unfavorable opinion and 39% didn’t know enough to have an opinion.

Harris County voters gave Gutierrez a slight edge, 45% to 44%. 

Liberty County voters supported Mealer by a more than two-to-one margin, with 65% of the vote compared with 28% for Gutierrez. 

In the race for the U.S. Senate, Republican Ken Paxton leads Democrat James Talarico by 1 percentage point among TX-9 likely voters. 

In the Texas gubernatorial election, Republican Greg Abbott leads Democrat Gina Hinojosa by 4 percentage points among TX-9 likely voters. 

President Donald Trump is viewed favorably by 46% of TX-9 likely voters, and unfavorably by 53%, with 1% not knowing enough about him to have an opinion.

Read the report to learn more about where likely voters in TX-9 stand on the candidates, including differences of opinion when considering gender, age, race/ethnicity, education and county of residence.

Media Release October 14, 2026

Research Team 

Co-Investigator Renée Cross, Senior Executive Director & Researcher

Co-Investigator Mark P. Jones, Senior Research Fellow, Hobby School of Public Affairs; James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy's Fellow in Political Science, Rice University

Maria P. Perez Argüelles, Research Assistant Professor

Savannah Sipole, Research Associate

Communications Team

Diana Benitez, Program Director, Web & Graphic Design

Victoria Cordova, Executive Director of Communications

Jeannie Kever, Communications Consultant

Celeste Zamora, Communications Director

Election Reports

Previous reports on statewide, county and city elections are found here.