Jake Ellzey Defeats Trump Endorsed Candidate In Texas Runoff. Is it the End of the Midas Touch?

Republican Jake EllzeyFacebook

Jake Ellzey, who won more than 53% of the vote, defeated fellow Republican Susan Wright in a special runoff in Texas’s 6th Congressional District on Tuesday night. It comes as a harsh blow to both Wright and former President Trump, who had backed Wright in the race.

The result can be seen as a stark rebuke of Donald Trump’s endorsement by Texas-based Republicans. The runoff election has been closely watched, seen by many Republicans and Democrats as a litmus test of the former Presidents influence in Texas.

The smear tactics employed by Wright during her campaign may also have backfired. Former congressman Joe L. Barton, who represented the seat before the death of incumbent Ron Wright (the husband of Susan Wright) had endorsed Ellzey in the runoff. He had this to say on Wright’s campaign strategy.

“She’s run a terrible campaign. Jake Ellzey is a good person. He voted for Trump. There is no reason for a conservative group to go after him like this. He’s the real deal.”

These results matter, as Trump has in the last few days endorsed yet another party member for election, none other than Attorney General Ken Paxton. Despite a laundry list of unresolved indictments and questionable activities blotting Paxton's recent past, the former President gave him a glowing review and endorsement, one Paxton may yet come to rue.

The endorsement will be seen by many Republicans as a direct snub of the Republican loyalist George P. Bush, Paxton’s challenger.

It may behoove the former President to remain aloof from further endorsements where a seat is being contested by two Republicans. A clear knock-on effect of his endorsement is to galvanize Democrats who would otherwise have abstained, to cast their vote against his “chosen one”.

Jana Lynne Sanchez, the Democrat who placed third in the primary run-off, said that “most” of her friends if they were voting at all, were casting anti-Wright protest votes. She was quoted as saying;

“Democrats have two choices: Stay home or vote against Trump,”

What is uppermost in the minds of most mainstream Republicans in Texas is this one simple question. Will the Texas GOP manage to grapple back control from radical elements that have embedded themselves into every corner of the party, many of whom look directly to the former President for guidance.

Jake Ellzey’s election may be the starting point for exactly this kind of powerplay, the ousting of Trump loyalists from seats of power. The response to Ellzey’s victory on social media has been vocal and for once, bipartisan in support of the outcome.

It's important to note that the two Republican candidates ran on exactly the same platforms, with almost identical policies. What the election reflects is the voter's choice of the individual, and while Wright appealed to Trump loyalists, the more centrist approach of Ellzey may very well have won him the election.

If this is indeed the reason behind his unexpected victory, it will have the more radical elements in the Texas GOP gravely concerned as they face a strengthening Democratic presence in Texas. In the 2020 elections, it was the smaller more marginalized cities and towns that carried the GOP to victory.

This lesson will not be lost on the Democrats and the GOP can ill afford to present a divided front at the midterms and the next election. Perhaps Ellzey has just presented them with a solution of sorts, a genteel internal coup of sorts, or marginalization of radical elements within to regain control of what was once the Grand Old Party.

All eyes will now be focused on the race for Texas’s next Attorney General and it will be interesting to see if Trump’s latest endorsement learns the lessons from Texas’s 6th Congressional District. There can be little doubt that George P. Bush will have noted Ellzey’s victory and will be making copious notes.

Democrats will also no doubt be plotting to ensure the removal of another Trump loyalist from the ranks of the GOP and the former President may have just lit Paxton up like a Christmas tree.

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