Former president Donald Trump declared victory in a special election in Texas where the candidate he supported actually lost, telling Fox News’ Dan Bongino Saturday that he had just won a “huge victory” in the Lone Star State.
On May 1, there was a special election for the 6th Congressional District of Texas, covering an area south and southeast of the Dallas / Fort Worth metropolitan area. The seat had been occupied by Rep. Ron Wright (R-TX), until his death from Covid-19 in February.
Two Republicans, Rep. Jake Ellzey and Susan Wright, the widow of Ron Wright, were the first two to win votes in the special election, and a run-off took place at the end of July. Ellzey beat Wright by more than six and a half points, 53.27% to 46.73%. Ellzey has since been sworn in to begin representing the district.
Trump had endorsed Wright and Ellzey’s victory was described by the Texas Tribune political reporter Patrick Svitek as a “major upheaval”. A few days later, a longer analytical article by Svitek assessed Ellzey’s “bipartisan appeal” and “a more positive and energetic campaign” among the reasons for his victory. Wright’s campaign has been criticized by political observers as being too dependent on the hope that Trump’s endorsement and aggressive overseas spending by the Club for Growth would propel it to victory.
On Saturday night, Trump himself showed no sign of acknowledging Ellzey’s election as a reproach, answering a question about Mike Carey, a Trump-backed candidate who actually won his election in Ohio, with a commentary also boasting from Texas.
The former president told the Fox News host he felt “very good” about Carey’s victory, then mentioned Texas:
And we had a big win in Texas. We had two Republicans in the running, we won three months ago, a big one, and we had two Republicans in the running, no Democrats, and the Democrats who voted, voted against me but it was a huge victory, then the big win in Ohio, more of a normal election and Mike won by many.
Trump was correct that there were “two Republicans in the running” (Ellzey and Wright), and presumably the “we won three months ago” comment referred to the original May special election. Trump’s comment on the Democrats ‘”against me” vote reflects Texas’ open primary system, in which voters do not have to register with a party but can instead request a Republican or Democratic Party ballot in the event. partisan primary elections. In a special second-round election where only two Republicans were on the ballot, voters who had previously requested Democratic ballots or otherwise identified as Democrats could have voted the same way as Republicans or Independents.
That’s a long way to say that it is just not reasonable to interpret Trump’s comments on this “big win” and “huge win” as referring to anything other than the second round of the special election. for Texas’ 6th Congressional District, well, Trump doesn’t seem to have many other people who see him as a victory for him.
Watch the video above, via Fox News.
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