TX-26: Former Denton County Judge Scott Armey announced Tuesday that he'd run to succeed retiring Rep. Michael Burgess, who defeated Armey in a nasty 2002 GOP primary runoff.
Armey joins a March 5 nomination contest that already includes businesswoman Luisa del Rosal and Brandon Gill, the founder of a far-right website and the son-in-law of MAGA toady Dinesh D'Souza. A May 28 runoff would take place in this safety red seat in the northern Fort Worth suburbs and exurbs if none of the candidates win a majority in the first round. The filing deadline is Dec. 11.
Armey, who is the former leader of Denton County (county judgeships in Texas are executive rather than judicial posts), looked like the easy favorite when his powerful father, then-House Majority Leader Dick Armey, unexpectedly announced his retirement three weeks ahead of the qualifying deadline. The younger Armey went on to secure 45% in the first round of the 2002 primary, while Burgess, an obstetrician who was running for office for the first time, outpaced Keith Self just 22.5-22.2 for second. (Self got elected in the neighboring 3rd District last year.)
However, the runoff did not go as planned for Armey, who had once enjoyed a 53-3 edge in one poll. Burgess campaigned as a political outsider and drew attention with mailers proclaiming, "My Dad is not Dick Armey." The former judge was also hurt when The Dallas Morning News reported that he'd supported contracts that benefited his friends and allies. Burgess additionally went after his opponent for his role in a 1992 car crash and spread around a letter where the victim said Armey "never once called to inquire about my well-being."
Armey, as D Magazine's Dan Michalski would write later that year, had the support of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Majority Whip Tom DeLay, and Sen. Phil Gramm, though these endorsements and the expensive campaign that accompanied them may have done more harm than good. "That idea kind of backfired," political scientist John Todd said, "because it didn’t really help the cause of convincing voters that this wasn’t just Daddy entitling this public position to his son."
Burgess, who had the support of local officials who identified their preference as "Instead of Armey," ended up pulling off a 55-45 upset. "I’ve thrown my support behind Dr. Burgess," Armey told Michalski, "But you’re getting someone who has set himself apart from the philosophies of Scott Armey and Dick Armey." The elder Armey, for his part, accused the Morning News of waging "an outrageous vendetta against me that was focused on my son," and he unsuccessfully tried to amend a major military appropriations bill to force its parent company, Belo Corporation, to divest from one of its media properties.
Scott Armey went on to take a job in the Bush administration at the General Services Administration, and he says he's since "built a career as a private wealth advisor with Ameriprise." He launched his comeback effort by pitching himself as an ardent fiscal conservative ally of Donald Trump, a man who was far from the political scene when Armey first ran for Congress.