Instead, Democrats were shut out of a runoff in the special election.Â
Wright received 19.2% of the votes and Republican state Rep. Jake Ellzey 13.9%, according to unofficial results from the Texas Secretary of Stateâs office. Just 354 votes separated Ellzey and Sanchez.
Political analysts and observers say low Democrat turnout, a field of 23 candidates and a district that favors Republicans played a role in keeping a Democrat out of the race.Â
While former President Trump credits his endorsement of Wright, Sanchez thinks the outcome on May 1 could have been different if the state Democratic Party did more to step in and support a single candidate.
Texas GOP gears up for contentious runoff in TX-6 congressional race as Democrats grapple with being shutout
Texas Tribune
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Credit: Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via REUTERS
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Days after getting locked out of a special election runoff for Congress in North Texas, Democrats are mulling over what went wrong and assigning some blame for the unflattering start to the 2022 election cycle.
At the same time, Republicans are preparing for a contentious runoff between Susan Wright and Jake Ellzey, even though Wright, backed by former President Donald Trump, would appear to start as the favorite.
5 May 2021
Three former chairs of the Democrat’s campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), have sounded the alarm as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) continues to see her extremely slim majority slip away.
As the midterms are quickly approaching, former chairs of the DCCC are sounding the alarm for the incumbent Democrats trying to remain in the majority. With the Republicans looking to regain the House, the Republican campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), has hammered the vulnerable Democrats with its hopes to win back seats.
In recent weeks, multiple Democrats have called it quits on remaining in the House as the chances of staying in the majority are quickly fading.
A Democratic candidate who lost her bid during last weekend’s Texas congressional special election sounded the alarm that the 2022 midterms “could be a major setback” for the Democratic Party.
During the special election, two Republicans - and no Democrats - advanced in the runoff as the top two vote-getters in the race for Texas’s 6th Congressional District, after no one in the 23-candidate field won an outright majority of votes on May 1.
Republicans Susan Wright, wife of the late Rep. Ron Wright, finished with 19 percent of the vote, while Jake Ellzey garnered 14 percent. Democrat Jana Lynne Sanchez finished third with 13 percent and conceded on May 2.
Efforts by Texas Republicans to pass voting restrictions tests the enduring relationship between the party and big business in the state.
There’s always a danger in drawing too many inferences from a single election especially one held on a weekend in May 2021. But the outcome serves as a reminder of one of Democrats’ biggest worries in November 2022: that Republicans will turn out in huge numbers and Democrats won’t, costing the latter their control of the House.
Democrats had reason for optimism heading into the Texas contest, at least on paper. President Trump only narrowly carried the district in November after winning by 12 percentage points four years earlier. A growing Black and Latino population in Arlington, in the urban slice of the district, further heightened Democratic hopes.