
GOP challenger Steve Toth ousts Rep. Dan Crenshaw in Texas primary
ABC News
U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas has lost his reelection bid in a GOP primary election to a conservative state lawmaker from Conroe
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.













