Dan Crenshaw Defeated: Four-Term Texas Incumbent Goes Down In Primary

Four-term Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) was beaten decisively in the Republican primary for Texas’s 2nd Congressional District on Tuesday.

Crenshaw comes behind state Rep. Steve Toth by a wide margin, a stunning reversal for a lawmaker who entered Congress in 2019 as one of the GOP’s most prominent rising stars. With 94% of the votes counted on Wednesday morning, Toth won 56% to Crenshaw’s 40.5%, according to the Associated Press.

Crenshaw was first elected in 2018, succeeding retiring Republican Rep. Ted Poe in the suburban Houston-based district. A former Navy SEAL who lost an eye in Afghanistan, Crenshaw quickly became a fixture on cable news and conservative media, gaining national attention during his first campaign and building a reputation as a sharp, combative communicator.

In Congress, he positioned himself as a national security-focused conservative, serving on key committees and often emphasizing border security, energy production, and military readiness. He cultivated an image as a policy-oriented Republican willing to engage across factions of the party, though that positioning increasingly placed him at odds with its populist wing.

Crenshaw survived prior primary challenges, but not without turbulence. While he maintained comfortable general election victories in the solidly Republican district, he faced criticism from grassroots activists who viewed him as insufficiently aligned with the party. His votes on certain spending measures and foreign aid packages drew scrutiny from the right, and he occasionally clashed publicly with conservative commentators and fellow Republicans.

Over time, those fissures widened. As the Republican Party shifted further toward a more combative, populist posture under President Donald Trump, Crenshaw’s brand of hawkish, institutional conservatism lost ground among segments of the primary electorate. His criticism of some Trump-aligned figures and his support for certain bipartisan legislative efforts fueled the perception among critics that he was out of step with the party’s grassroots base.

That discontent has coalesced around Toth, a longtime Texas state legislator with strong ties to the state’s conservative activist network. Toth ran a campaign positioning himself as a more reliable ally of the Trump-aligned wing of the GOP, emphasizing border security, opposition to federal spending, and what he described as the need to send a fighter to Washington.

Crenshaw’s defeat marks one of the most high-profile primary losses of the cycle, especially in a safe Republican seat where the decisive battle is likely the primary. Toth will face Democrat Shaun Finnie, an investment banker, in November. Finnie ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. However, Texas’s 2nd District has remained firmly Republican in recent cycles, and the GOP nominee will be heavily favored in the general election barring a dramatic shift in turnout or national conditions.

Crenshaw’s trajectory mirrors a broader pattern within the GOP: lawmakers who rose during the pre-2020 era and sought to balance establishment conservatism with populist energy have increasingly found themselves squeezed by challengers promising clearer alignment with the party’s current center of gravity.

For Crenshaw, the loss closes a six-year chapter that began with national momentum and ends amid a changing party landscape. Whether he seeks another path in public life remains to be seen. But, Texas’s 2nd District will likely send a new Republican to Washington — and one whose ascent underscores just how much the party’s internal politics have shifted since 2018.