Yes, it was a Republicans- only runoff, and yes, the opponent ran a terrible campaign, and yes, a one- off election doesn't make a trend. But...
Voters in North Texas rebuked former president Donald Trump on Tuesday, electing state Rep. Jake Ellzey to a vacant seat in Congress after Trump endorsed a rival Republican candidate.
Ellzey, a Navy veteran who ran on border security and stopping the Democrats’ congressional agenda, defeated Susan Wright, the widow of Rep. Ron Wright, whose death this year after contracting the coronavirus created a vacancy in Texas’s 6th Congressional District. Although Ellzey did not criticize Trump during the campaign, his allies suggested that the former president made a mistake by endorsing a first-time candidate who struggled to raise money and held few campaign events.
Ellzey declared victory two hours after the polls closed, shortly before the Associated Press projected him as the winner. He told supporters that voters had wanted “a positive outlook, a Reagan Republican outlook for the future of our country” despite a blizzard of negative ads.
Ellzey is a garden variety Republican obstructionist/ reactionary, and that's what the voters in that deep red district wanted. It's notable, though, that he describes himself not as a Trump Republican, but as a Reagan Republican (remember that guy?). Also notable, it's not the first time a Trump- endorsed candidate has lost, but again, this is in a heavily Republican district one would expect would be in lockstep with the wishes of their cult leader.
Of course, we applaud any sign that all might not be well in The Cult, and that their leader's grip might be weakening, if only slightly. With his incessant focus on the Big Lie, the ongoing reminder that he attempted a violent coup to remain in office, plus Republican anti- vax rhetoric backlashing in the face of a pandemic of the unvaccinated, Republicans in local races will have a hard time running on the "positive outlook" that Ellzey said his voters wanted.
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