The special congressional election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat in the 6th Congressional District of Texas could be the most competitive of the special elections for Congress this year.
The May 1 special election was made necessary due to the sudden passing of Congressman Ron Wright (R, TX-06). The race, depending on the rating service, is seen as a “lean”/”likely” Republican.
Nearly 2 dozen candidates filed to appear on the May 1 ballot, with Wright’s widow, Susan Wright, seen as the early frontrunner. The only published poll puts Wright at 18% of the vote, making a late May/June runoff election between the top-2 candidates, regardless of party, inevitable.
The 10 Republicans, 11 Democrats, 1 independent and 1 Libertarian will all appear on the same ballot on May 1, which for many parts of the district is the same day as local government elections in the 3 counties (southeastern Tarrant County including parts of Fort Worth and Arlington, Ellis and Navarro counties).
In addition to Ms. Wright, one of the more colorful candidates is former WWE wrestler, “Big” Dan Rodimer (ro-DIME-er) who was the Republican nominee for the NV-03 House seat last fall, who relocated his wife and six children to the Ft. Worth exurb of Mansfield in order to run in the special election.
Late Thursday, Rodimer released this video ad to introduce himself to his new home state’s voters.
Taking his anti-Trump Country First PAC on the road for the first time, IL-16 Congressman Adam Kinzinger this week endorsed a candidate in the TX-06 special election.
Kinzinger’s endorsed candidate’s name is Michael Wood, a reservist in the U.S. Marines who publicly bad-mouthed then President Trump after the January 6 Capitol Riot.
Kinzinger is taking his Country First outside of Illinois to see how the anti-Trump message will play in an open seat election.
Wood did not receive 1% support in the latest poll published last week, and Rodimer barely scored 1%.
Here is Kinzinger’s endorsement tweet:
Mainstream Texas Republicans, and some national Republicans trying to avoid a runoff against a Democrat (and the higher risk of possibly seeing the seat flipped), have begun trying to unify around Wright’s candidacy.
Yesterday, the Texas State Republican Executive Committee, in an unprecedented move, voted to endorse Wright’s candidacy with a 43-9 vote, with 7 abstaining.
This past week, both Congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s E-PAC and the Republican women’s VIEWPAC announced their endorsements of Wright, hoping to prevent a runoff with the possibility of Wright winning the special election outright on May 1.
Widow’s succession worked in the LA-05 special election last week, as Dr. Julia Letlow (R) won a supermajority of the special election vote on March 20 to succeed her late husband, Congressman-elect Luke Letlow in a field with over a dozen candidates without a runoff.
Can widow’s succession be repeated in Texas and result in Wright winning the special election outright on May 1?
Will Adam Kinzinger’s anti-Trump message play well in Texas and propel Michael Wood into competitiveness in the large field, where two former staffers for the Trump administration are running in the election?
We’ll know on the first Saturday in May, which is also Derby Day, and appropriate, given the large “horse race” of a field.
Kinzstinker’s endorsement is the political kiss of death.
Just look at the sneer on his face………just for you and me.
A face only a democRAT could love.
Kinzinger should really come out of the closet.
Aaron Schock did.
Maybe he can come out with Tom Cruise or Matt Damon of Ben Affleck.
Wright is wrong.