Former longtime Republican Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas passed what may be his biggest test in his bid to return to the House of Representatives.
Sessions, who served 22 years in Congress before being defeated in 2018 by Democrat Colin Allred, won a primary second round on Tuesday.
WITH THE HELP OF TRUMP, THE OLD WHITE HOUSE JACKSON DOCTOR WINS THE PRIMARY GOP HOUSE IN TEXAS
But the former chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee and the Republican National Committee of Congress did not run in the 32nd Congressional District of Texas, the suburban Dallas area district he once represented.
Instead, he ran in the state’s 17th Congressional District, about 100 miles south of his old district and includes the city of Waco. The change angered current Republican Rep. Bill Flores, who backed Sessions’ opponent, healthcare executive Renee Swann.
The sessions outperformed Swann by approximately 7 percentage points, based on unofficial vote totals. After Swann conceded, Sessions seemed to hit Flores.
“I am going to represent a powerful district that will be run from the bottom up, not the top down from now on. Mr. Flores liked to get things from the top down, and I’m not like that, “Sessions said, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald.
The former congressman will now face off in the safe Republican district in November against Democrat Rich Kennedy, who won his party’s second-round primary election Tuesday.
