GOP challenger Steve Toth ousts Rep. Dan Crenshaw in Texas primary
Republican challenger Steve Toth defeated U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw Tuesday night, ousting the only Republican in the Texas House of Representatives who President Donald Trump has not endorsed before the nation’s first major primary in 2026.
Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL whose independent streak has sometimes clashed with his fellow Republicans, spent the primary trying to fend off attacks from the party’s far right that he was out of step with Trump’s agenda.
Toth, a state representative and member of the far-right GOP caucus in the Legislature, won broad support late in the primary from Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
Crenshaw, who lost his right eye when he was hit by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in 2012, had clashed with Cruz over the senator’s support for Trump’s unfounded claim that he won the 2020 presidential election.
Crenshaw was one of the few Texas Republican candidates for Congress in 2022 who acknowledged that President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory was legitimate, a position that sometimes put him at odds with his Republican colleagues.
Crenshaw also angered conservatives when a video clip went viral in which he criticized some Republican politicians as “con artists” and “performance artists” who simply tell conservative voters what they want to hear.
Crenshaw, 41, was seeking his fifth term. Its 2nd Congressional District spans Houston’s northern and eastern suburbs.
