The vast majority of members of Congress will learn in November whether they’ve been re-elected, but some won’t have to wait quite that long. The Texas Tribune reported:
State Rep. Steve Toth beat incumbent U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw for the Republican nomination in Texas’ 2nd Congressional District, coming one step closer to representing the Houston-area seat.
Toth opened a wide lead in the Republican primary on Tuesday as results came in and declared victory hours before The Associated Press called the race in his favor.
When Crenshaw arrived on Capitol Hill seven years ago, countless reports included the words “rising star” in the same sentence as his name. The New York Times described the young Texas Republican as “a charismatic, Harvard-educated retired Navy SEAL who wore a distinctive eye patch after losing his right eye during a deployment.”
The question at the time wasn’t whether he’d climb the ranks in GOP politics, but rather how high he’d go.
Crenshaw did face criticism from some of the more radical elements of his party’s base, but he easily fended off primary rivals in 2022 and 2024.
This year, however, Crenshaw was literally the only incumbent House Republican not to receive an endorsement from Donald Trump. With just about all of the ballots counted, the congressman lost to a far-right state legislator by a double-digit margin.
With an outcome like this one, it might be tempting to think Crenshaw has been a thorn in the side of GOP leaders or perhaps a member who started drifting ideologically, partnering with Democrats on some key legislation.
Except that didn’t happen — at least not in terms of his voting record. Crenshaw was as doctrinaire a member as the average House Republican, toeing the party line throughout his career on practically every major bill that reached the floor. As MS NOW’s Sydney Carruth explained during Tuesday night’s live-blog coverage, “His background is awash with support for conservative legislation, Trump’s harsh immigration policies and a proposal to end Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care for minors. Crenshaw’s X profile promotes a hard-line approach to fighting Mexican drug cartels, a priority frequently touted by the Trump administration.”
The Texan did, however, make some intraparty enemies: Crenshaw had a habit of mocking the House Freedom Caucus (he called its members “performance artists”); he distanced himself from Trump-fueled election conspiracy theories and election denialism; and he made no secret of his disagreements with right-wing media personalities such as Tucker Carlson.
For many on the right, this sealed the congressman’s fate: Crenshaw might have been a Republican lawmaker wedded to party orthodoxy on most issues, but he wasn’t MAGA.
That cost him his career.
