GOP challenger Steve Toth ousts Rep. Dan Crenshaw in Texas primary

Republican challenger Steve Toth defeated U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw on Tuesday night, ousting the only House Republican in Texas who President Donald Trump didn’t endorse heading into the nation’s first big primary of 2026.

Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL whose independent streak sometimes clashed with fellow Republicans, spent the primary trying to fend off attacks from the party’s hard right that he was not in step with Trump’s agenda.

Toth, a state representative and member of the GOP’s hard-right caucus in the Legislature, picked up a big endorsement late in the primary from Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

Crenshaw, who lost his right eye when he was hit with an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in 2012, had clashed with Cruz over the senator’s support of 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 victory in 2020 was legitimate, a position that occasionally found him at odds with fellow Republicans.

Crenshaw also drew the ire of conservatives when a video clip went viral of him criticizing some Republican politicians as “grifters” and “performance artists” who simply tell conservative voters what they want to hear.

The 41-year-old Crenshaw was seeking his fifth term. His 2nd Congressional District spans the suburbs north and east of Houston.