Texas voters on Tuesday handed more power to the insurgent wing of the Republican Party in an expensive and vengeful primary election, punishing GOP lawmakers, judges and a House speaker who defied hard-right state leaders and their supporters in recent years.
Most notably, Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, was forced into a runoff with a well-funded challenger, David Covey, after being targeted by ultra-conservative donors and activists, who faulted the second-term speaker for declining to stop the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton last May. Paxton backed Covey in the primary, along with many other conservative challengers targeting House members who voted for his impeachment.
Few who landed in the crosshairs of Abbott and Paxton emerged from the bruising primary unscathed.
Abbott said in a statement that the election "Sent an unmistakable message" that Republican primary voters are in favor of school choice and vowed to continue helping those candidates as they continue their trek to Austin.
Six Texas House Republicans who fought Abbott's attempt to create a school voucher program in Texas lost their primaries to pro-voucher candidates, while another four were forced into runoffs to defend their rural districts.
Clardy lost his primary to pro-voucher candidate Joanne Shofner, earning less than 40% of the vote.
In the last month of the primary campaign, he spent $4.4 million on challengers to 10 House Republicans and made endorsements in several races, including in several seats left open by retiring members, in an attempt to turn 11 seats over to candidates who support helping parents pay for private school tuition with taxpayer dollars.
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