Voters in Texas’ 6th District headed to the polls on Tuesday to pick a replacement for GOP Rep. Ron Wright, who died earlier this year after being diagnosed with Covid-19. Both candidates in the race — Ron Wright’s widow Susan Wright and state Rep. Jake Ellzey — were Republicans. They advanced to a runoff after finishing first and second in an all-party primary election in May.
In an upset, Ellzey defeated Wright by six points, 53-47 percent. That was despite Wright having led in the first round, being endorsed by former President Donald Trump, and benefitting from heavy spending on her behalf by the Club for Growth.
Here are six things I think after seeing the results of the fourth House special election of 2021.
Candidates matter. A common refrain among Democrats and Republicans in and around this race was that Wright was a weak candidate who never really threw herself into the contest. Former Rep. Joe Barton, who held the seat before Ron Wright and who endorsed Ellzey, told the Washington Post shortly before Election Day that Susan Wright had “run a terrible campaign.” By contrast, Ellzey, a former fighter pilot and first-term state legislator, raised nearly three times as much money as Wright during the runoff and used his hometown advantage in Ellis County to help increase his margin. Ellzey did what he needed to do to win; Wright did not.
The corollary is that Trump’s endorsement is not a silver bullet. The former president endorsed Wright and she still lost. Ellzey winning is not a good look for Trump, and he knows it, which is why he tried to shift the blame onto the Club for Growth, and even tried to argue...