Republican Jake Ellzey is the projected winner over fellow Republican Susan Wright in the special election to fill the seat in Texas’s 6th congressional district which became vacant after the death of Wright’s husband, Rep. Ron Wright, from COVID-19 earlier this year:
Decision Desk HQ projects Republican @JakeEllzey as the winner of the TX-06 special election runoff.
Race called at: 9:51 eastern daylight time pic.twitter.com/aYv8oHcMU5
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) July 28, 2021
Ellzey’s win is being called a “major upset”:
Breaking: In a major upset against a candidate that Donald Trump backed, Republican Jake Ellzey is projected to beat fellow GOP candidate Susan Wright in the runoff for a Texas congressional seat. https://t.co/0MjcolCjYK
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) July 28, 2021
And the media is spinning it as a “huge loss” for Donald Trump as he endorsed Wright:
Huge loss for Trump in Texas. Republican state Rep. Jake Ellzey will win the special election runoff in Texas’ 6th congressional district, CNN projects.
Ellzey overcame former President Trump’s endorsement of his opponent, Republican Susan Wright— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 28, 2021
This loss will undoubtedly be interpreted as a sign of the waning influence of his endorsement — and that could have major implications in 2022 primaries
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 28, 2021
Wright was also pushed hard but the Club for Growth:
Trump's gonna get the most attention if Wright loses #TX06, but it's also a blow to the Club for Growth, which spent to beat Ellzey in 2018 (when he first ran for the seat) and spent seven figures against him in this primary/runoff.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 28, 2021
While Wright had Trump backing her, Ellzey had former Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Dan Crenshaw in his corner:
Big win for Dan Crenshaw, one of the few Texas House Rs who backed Ellzey, and has been on his own candidate-recruiting mission for GOP veterans. (Ellzey was a Navy pilot).)
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 28, 2021
Former energy secretary (and Texas gov) Rick Perry had backed Ellzey, bucking Trump's endorsement of Wright https://t.co/OrdAM0QiHV
— Timothy Cama (@Timothy_Cama) July 28, 2021
As for this being a “huge loss” for Trump, keep in mind that this was a very low turnout election between two Republicans as the Dem was taken out in the jungle primary:
Before drawing sweeping conclusions about the outcome, a reminder: turnout in this runoff was fairly pathetic. With all early votes and most EDay votes reported, there are only 37k votes counted – less than 8% of registered voters in #TX06 and less than half of 5/1 votes cast.
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) July 28, 2021
And there were “mysterious texts” being sent to Dems telling them to vote for Ellzey over “Trump candidate” Wright:
Source in #TX06 shares mysterious texts, going to Democrats, that remind them that Wright is the Trump candidate and call Ellzey "a champion for our public education system."
It's an R-on-R race but anecdotally, I've heard of Dems casting protest votes for Ellzey. pic.twitter.com/k1LC4Lvc9c
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 27, 2021
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