Republican state Rep. Jake Ellzey defeated a Trump-endorsed candidate Tuesday evening in the special election runoff race for Texas’s Sixth Congressional District.
Ellzey won by nearly seven points in an upset against Susan Wright after the two candidates competed to fill the seat of Wright’s late husband, Rep. Ron Wright (R-TX). Ron Wright died in February a little over two weeks after being hospitalized with coronavirus. He had also been battling lung cancer since 2018.
Ellzey delivered a message of unity in a victory speech Tuesday night, stating, “The security of our nation is at stake. … It’s essential that we get this right. It’s essential that we do it as Americans united instead of Americans divided, Republicans united instead of Republicans divided.”
“So once we take back the House and the Senate in 2022 and take back the White House in 2024, we take back our country,” he continued.
Wright congratulated Ellzey in a statement online, writing, “Special elections are special and this one was no exception. … I will never forget the kindness the people of #TX06 have shown Ron & I for so many years. Thank you”:
Special elections are special, and this one was no exception.
I want to congratulate Congressman-elect Jake Ellzey on his victory. I am praying for his success & wish him well.
I will never forget the kindness the people of #TX06 have shown Ron & I for so many years. Thank you.
— Susan Wright (@SusanWrightTX6) July 28, 2021
Susan Wright announced she would seek to fill her husband’s seat in February, just a few weeks after his death, and ended up beating out 23 candidates in a crowded multi-party special election in May. Wright earned 19 percent of the vote, and Ellzey had come in second place with 14 percent, just barely edging out the top Democrat in the race, Jana Lynne Sanchez.
Former President Donald Trump weighed in on the special election by granting a last-minute endorsement to Wright during the week of the race. He said Wright would “be a terrific Congresswoman” and “be strong on the Border, Crime, Pro-Life, our brave military and Vets, and will ALWAYS protect your Second Amendment.”
Though Trump’s endorsement was seen at the time as a boost for Wright — given her definitive victory in May was due in large part to an influx of election day votes versus early votes — Wright’s ultimate loss to Ellzey on Tuesday could represent a loss by proxy for Trump.
The former president has been protective of his endorsements, which he has doled out largely to incumbents in red states or those challenging his political enemies, and the success rate of those endorsements in the midterms will serve as a test of his influence since leaving office.
While Wright’s race offered the first glimpse at the effectiveness of Trump’s endorsements, the turnout on Tuesday was low, as just 39,000 voters cast ballots, which is about half of the turnout of the May special election.
Additionally, one relatively unknown factor in the race is the impact Democrats may have had on it. Democrats had the ability to cast votes in the runoff, and Trump’s endorsement of Wright may have driven some Democrats to vote against her. The Dallas Morning News reported that Ellzey sought to appeal to Democrats in the district — which is situated in northern Texas, just below the Dallas-Fort Worth area — especially toward the end of his campaign.
Former Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), who represented the Sixth District for more than three decades, told the paper Trump “would have been better off staying neutral” and observed that Ellzey “was winning in Tarrant County and won big in Ellis County.”
“He ran a very good campaign,” Barton added.
While Wright campaigned with the advantage of name recognition from her husband, as well as the high-profile endorsements of Trump, the conservative Club for Growth, the Texas Republican Party, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ellzey ended up raising more money than Wright. Open Secrets reported Ellzey raised $1.2 million to Wright’s $454,000 in the most recent reporting period, April 12–July 7. Notable endorsements of Ellzey’s included Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R).
The Sixth District had also been seen as the one possible pickup opportunity for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) out of the handful of special congressional elections happening in 2021, but Wright and Ellzey shutting Democrats out of the runoff in May erased that possibility.
Once Ellzey is sworn into Congress, Pelosi will have only a three-vote cushion as she attempts to pass upcoming agenda items through Democrats’ slim House majority.
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.