Tuesday’s primary runoffs in Texas were a victory for the GOP’s establishment — but it was far from a decisive show of force in its ongoing battle with the party’s insurgent hard-right wing.
Moderate Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales fended off a far-right pro-gun YouTube star in his sprawling West Texas district. But it took a major party mobilization and millions of dollars in outside funding to help him crawl across the finish line shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday.
A clearer victory did come in an open red congressional seat to the north, where state Rep. Craig Goldman decisively beat an opponent aligned with members of the House Freedom Caucus.
The results were messier in a slew of hotly contested state legislative races. The state House speaker managed to cling onto his seat — also by a few hundred votes — despite a challenge from the right, a symbolic victory in an expensive race that had become a proxy battle.
