Former Florida U.S. Rep. Allen West, who was a favorite of the far-Right during his one term in Congress, told the National Journal this week that he was considering a bid against freshman Democratic Rep. Colin Allred in Texas’ 32nd District. Actually, West may be done thinking about it, since he told reporter Ally Mutnick that he and his family have “considered it and prayed about it, and on Independence Day we’ll make a little statement.” However, West didn’t commit to anything, asking at one point, “Do I need to have a title to validate my existence?”
If West does run, he may face a primary against an old colleague. Former Rep. Pete Sessions, whom Allred beat 52-46 last year, sounds very much like he plans to try again. Sessions told Mutnick, “Several things have to be put into place for the party to be able to support a good candidate,” and added, “I fully anticipate I will be that candidate, but I’m not ready to announce that right now.” Mutnick writes that neither West nor Sessions is “likely to defer to the other.”
Other Republicans may also run here. Mutnick writes that former Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne, who currently serves in Trump's Housing Department, is eyeing the race, though she hasn’t said anything publicly. However, none of Irving is located in this seat: Most of the city is in Texas' 24th District, which is held by GOP Rep. Kenny Marchant. Mutnick adds that businesswoman Genevieve Collins “is another potential candidate,” but Collins also hasn’t said anything yet. However, while businessman George Seay showed some interest in running back in February, he says he’s decided to stay out.
Seay also expressed his surprise that no one else has jumped in, and indeed, Team Red may very well hope that someone emerges as an alternative to the former congressmen, because both of them may be bad fits for a suburban Dallas seat that swung from 57-42 Romney to 49-47 Clinton.
West was elected in South Florida during the 2010 GOP wave, and he developed a knack for finding unique ways to offend. To take just a pair of examples, West declared that if Nazi propagandist "Joseph Goebbels was around, he'd be very proud of the Democrat Party, because they have an incredible propaganda machine." He also said that "when I see anyone with an Obama 2012 bumper sticker, I recognize them as a threat to the gene pool."
West’s approach helped him raise millions from tea partiers nationwide, but it didn’t play so well at home. In 2012, after redistricting scrambled Florida’s political map, West lost re-election 50.3-49.7 against Democrat Patrick Murphy even as Mitt Romney was carrying his seat 52-48. West spent weeks contesting his defeat, and while he eventually conceded, he charged that "many questions remain unanswered" about the vote totals.
West moved to the Lone Star State in 2014 and went on to serve on the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, which reviews the efficiency and operations of state agencies. However, the change of scenery hardly seems to have changed West’s ugly behavior. In December of 2016, he shared a Facebook meme about James Mattis, who was Trump's first secretary of Defense, captioned, "Fired by Obama to please the Muslims. Hired by Trump to exterminate them." West also launched a transphobic attack on Pennsylvania Physician General Rachel Levine that same year.
Sessions, who ran the NRCC when West was elected to his only term in the House in 2010, could present the GOP with a different sort of problem candidate. In October 2017, when it was becoming more and more apparent that Trump would be a drag on the GOP ticket the following year, Sessions still made it very clear that he didn't want major GOP outside groups coming to his aid, bragging that he "begged the NRCC, even when I was chairman, 'Keep the hell away from Dallas, Texas.'" He explained, "We need to go in somewhere else, it's up to me to win in Dallas, Texas. It's not up to some other group."
Months later, Sessions told McClatchy that he'd welcome a visit from Trump "with open arms," adding, "Can you invite him for me?" Major outside groups did end up spending plenty to aid him, and even Sessions belatedly came to realize that it might not be a good idea to campaign as a Trump ally. A month after his loss, Sessions also whined about his defeat and seemed shocked―just shocked―that national Democrats had run negative ads against him.
Sessions now tells the National Journal that, because Republicans took serious losses in races across Dallas County, his wide defeat was due to factors that were out of his control. Sessions asked, “Why would they need a new candidate?” but not everyone is convinced. Doug Deason, who serves as finance chair of the Dallas County GOP, publicly said, “I really think we need to encourage Pete not to run and to do something different.” West too faulted Sessions for running a weak campaign that allowed “Allred to define him rather than the other way around.”
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