Former White House physician Ronny Jackson is likely a deep-red Texas congressional district’s next representative after winning the Republican nomination.
Jackson beat longtime Republican staffer Josh Winegarner, with 56% of the vote and 66,000 votes counted in their primary runoff for Texas’s 13th Congressional District.
The district covers Texas’s panhandle and part of the state’s north. Republican Rep. Mac Thornberry, the top GOP lawmaker on the House Armed Services Committee, has been the incumbent since 1995. He announced last September he wouldn’t seek a 14th term in office.
Jackson and Winegarner’s race was a bare-knuckled contest after a 15-way primary. Jackson hit Winegarner for his record as an agriculture lobbyist in Washington, D.C., while Winegarner swung at Jackson for his time in the capital as well. Jackson was endorsed by President Trump, yet Winegarner had Thornberry’s backing and deeper-pocketed donors compared to his rival’s less organized campaign.
Jackson, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, was former President Barack Obama and Trump’s personal physician between 2013 and 2018 after joining the White House Medical Unit during George W. Bush’s administration.
Trump nominated Jackson to replace fired Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin in 2018, but the Iraq War veteran withdrew from consideration after complaints he created a hostile work environment at the White House, lacked the management experience to lead the beleaguered federal government department, and offered very glowing assessments of Trump’s health.
Texas’s 13th Congressional District is one of the most conservative in the country. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index of Republican plus-33, the winner is likely the district’s next representative in Congress.
