Trump Told Dan Bongino He Just Had a ‘Tremendous Win’ In a Texas Special Election (The Candidate He Endorsed Lost By 6.5 Points)

Former President Donald Trump declared victory in a Texas special election where the candidate he endorsed actually lost, telling Fox News’ Dan Bongino on Saturday that he had just had a “tremendous win” in the Lone Star State.

On May 1, there was a special election for Texas’ 6th congressional district, covering an area south and southeast of the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area. The seat had been held by Rep. Ron Wright (R-TX), until he died from Covid-19 in February.

Two Republicans, State Rep. Jake Ellzey and Susan Wright, Ron Wright’s widow, were the top two vote-getters in the special election, and a runoff was held in late July. Ellzey defeated Wright by more than six-and-a-half points, 53.27% to 46.73%. Ellzey has since been sworn into office to begin representing the district.

Trump had endorsed Wright, and Ellzey’s victory was described by Texas Tribune political reporter Patrick Svitek as a “major upset.” A longer analytical article a few days later by Svitek assessed Ellzey’s “bipartisan appeal” and “a more positive, energetic campaign” as among the reasons for his victory. Wright’s campaign was criticized by political observers as overly reliant on the expectation that Trump’s endorsement and aggressive outside spending by the Club for Growth would propel her to victory.

On Saturday night, Trump himself showed no signs of recognizing Ellzey’s election as a rebuke, responding to a question about Mike Carey, a Trump-endorsed candidate who actually did win his election in Ohio, with a comment boasting about Texas as well.

The former president told the Fox News host that he felt “very good” about Carey’s win, and then mentioned Texas:

And we had a big win in Texas. We had two Republicans running, we won three months ago, a big one, and we got two Republicans running, no Democrat, and the Democrats that voted, voted against me but it was a tremendous win, and then the big win in Ohio, more of a normal election and Mike won by a lot.

Trump was correct that there were “two Republicans running” (Ellzey and Wright), and presumably the “we won three months ago” comment referred to the original special election back in May. Trump’s comment about Democrats voting “against me” reflects Texas’ open primary system, in which voters do not have to register with a party but instead can request either a Republican or Democrat party ballot in partisan primary elections. In a runoff special election where only two Republicans were on the ballot, voters who had previously requested Democrat ballots or otherwise identified as Democrats would have been able to vote just the same as Republicans or Independents.

That’s a long way of saying that it just isn’t reasonable to interpret Trump’s comments about this “big win” and “tremendous win” as referring to anything other than the runoff special election for the Texas 6th congressional district, and, well, Trump does not seem to have many other people viewing it as a win for him.

Watch the video above, via Fox News.