It wasn’t even close….
The Trump endorsement for the loser wasn’t worth anything….
Republican voters disregard him….
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….
…
Internal polling released by Wright’s campaign last week put her ahead of Ellzey, though the first-time candidate had lost groundsince its first polling in June. Democrats were locked out of the runoff, and neither Republican had campaigned for their votes.
Both Ellzey and Wright said there were legitimate questions about the 2020 election, and both suggested they would vote consistently with Republican leadership. But Trump’s endorsement had an effect. Jana Lynne Sanchez, the Democrat who placed third in the primary, said that “most” of her friends, if they were voting at all, were casting anti-Wright protest votes….
Note…
Republican lawmakers across the country ARE falling over themselves to get Donald Trump’s blessing…
In this case?
That blessing helped the winner….
image…abcnews.go.com
And I was too lazy to revise my May 31 blog prediction of “Likely Wright”. Now I have to do a “post.” Crap.
(Technically though, it does not go against my record, since I predicted a Republican win)
Maybe the message is that it helps to have Trump’s endorsement, unless you are a bald white man running against a widow.
My spam folder had like 12 emails from Ellzey a day. He would claim that if he lost the runoff, “the country is officially doomed to Nancy Pelosi’s radical Socialism and the American Dream is over.” He did not mention he was running against a Trump backed Republican, so maybe people bought into the scare tactic.
How will Trump explain this one away though?
Maybe he will say the vote was stolen or rigged…
With the runoff over, Ellzey said this tonight:
“One of the things that we’ve seen from this campaign is a positive outlook — a Reagan Republican outlook for the future of our country — is what the people of the 6th District really, really want,”
Subtle.
RRH….
10:08 ET- 90% in and Ellzey is still up 53-47. I’m ready to call it. That’s all folks.
10:03 ET- 81% reporting, same score.
9:55 ET- Only up to 60% reporting but we’re still 53-47 for Ellzey.
9:27 ET- Finally a big vote dump gets us to 54% of e-day and Ellzey is still up 53-47. Looks like most of Tarrant is in. Not quite ready to call it for Ellzey but the math is getting really tough for Wright.
8:42 ET- 20K votes in, all early and 3% of election day, Ellzey 53-Wright 47.
8:20 ET- 19K votes in from Tarrant and Ellis, Ellzey 53-Wright 47.
Results: Texas SoS || KXAS-TV
100%….Elzey….53.27%
Wright…46.73%
All the Democrats voted for Elzey.
Also,unmentioned here,Wright was actually endorsed by the Texas Republican Party,.
Wonder why the Party endorsed a candidate while there were other Republicans running?Unusual to say the least.
The likely answer?At the urging of Trump,Donald J
Republican and Democratic voters gave Trump the finger……
Coukd we call this Trump’s influence ‘fading’ i wonder?
Is this a message to the others?
Is this another example of Trump’s turning something else to ‘shit’?
Hmmmm?
Hmmmmm?
This guy stole my headline?
Is Trump’s Influence Starting to Fade?
Jonathan Bernstein: “Now, measuring the effects of endorsements across a full election cycle is difficult, and assessing the effect on a single contest is basically impossible. (That’s true of almost everything, whether it’s endorsements or campaign ads or speeches or debates.) There are too many possible factors, and only one outcome.”
“However, the result in Texas does suggest that some of the more exaggerated expectations about Trump’s endorsement were overstated. If he can’t deliver in a low-interest contest without an incumbent on the ballot — and we can at least say that he failed to generate any kind of turnout surge for Susan Wright, his preferred candidate — then it seems less likely that he can bump off otherwise safe incumbent Republicans in primary elections with little effort.”
“But what matters isn’t how important Trump’s endorsement actually was. It’s how his endorsements are perceived by Republican party actors, especially politicians.”
and then the winner of the runoff gives his victory speech and talks about being a “Reagan Republican” and subtly shades Trump by talking about a “positive message”, etc.
It would not have been something he would have dared said before the runoff, but once Trump was made to politically bleed, he got somewhat brave.
I am NOT ALONE in my view that Donald J. Trump IS actually fading in political influence ….
Trump’s diminished power is showing at a very bad time
…Trump has no carrots, just this one stick: that he can turn the Republican base for or against any Republican who crosses his path. He needs desperately — desperately! — for Republicans to think that they have to listen to him or risk their own careers, just as Scott Farkus needed to have the other kids worry constantly about having their arms twisted behind their backs.
Over the course of his presidency, Trump actually had a good record in primary endorsements. But for three important reasons, it’s not clear whether that ability to deliver wins will hold….
…
It’s hard to overstate how important it is for Trump to be seen as decisive. It’s why when a political action committee associated with Trump nemesis John Bolton published a poll suggesting that Trump’s grip had weakened, Trump’s team did a full-court press to rebut the insinuation. His then-spokesman Jason Miller sent a flurry of rejoinders insisting that Trump was still as strong as he liked the world to think. (Incidentally, Miller’s replacement by Liz Harrington is in its own way a diminishment of Trump’s ability to hold the party in his grip.) Trump needs people to think he can make or break their careers.
It’s probably true that, for many, he still can. But this week has been a good reminder that such bullying can very quickly fall apart under the right conditions. At some point next year, as primaries unfold, Trump may see his power collapse and see a bunch of Republicans he opposed headed back to Washington — shaking their heads at him as they go, amazed that they had ever feared him….
More…
Proper…..
How Susan Wright’s Campaign Knew She Would Lose
Texas Tribune: “Susan Wright’s campaign had reasons to feel good Tuesday morning, coming off a tele-rally with former President Donald Trump the night before and armed with internal polling showing she had a comfortable lead over her fellow Republican opponent. But anxiety set in as the day went on and her campaign saw higher-than-expected turnout. Then, a couple hours before polls closed, her consultant, Matt Langston, got a call.”
“It was from a campaign worker at a polling place, and they said the kinds of voters who were showing up had ‘definitely changed.’ How do you know that? Langston asked.”
Said the worker: “Because they’re all wearing masks.”