Winning a surprise Republican primary election victory in Texas last night, 33-year-old former Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw is in a strong position to win election to Congress in November.
Crenshaw’s victory is important for a simple reason: It shows that Republican candidates can win without much fundraising and while also being intellectually impressive and not totally submissive to President Trump. That’s a good thing for a Republican Party that needs to have a diversity of opinions and a recognition that Trump won’t be president for life.
Still, Crenshaw’s victory is quite remarkable. Coming up against political behemoths, who had most of the major funding and endorsements, Crenshaw was never favored to win. As GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak explained to me, “Dan Crenshaw has a powerful personal story and Houston is a patriotic town that honors and reveres military service. He ran a highly organized campaign in a very competitive and well-funded field. In the primary, he overcame a candidate who spent $6 million while he had only a fraction of that.”
That said, it’s clear to see Crenshaw deserved to win.
For one, Crenshaw has put his life on the line in the nation’s service in some of its most bloody battles of recent years. This includes a deployment to Fallujah, Iraq, to confront the car bomb factories of al Qaeda. In 2012, Crenshaw lost an eye in an explosion in the Taliban strongholds of Helmand province, Afghanistan.
Yet the real measure of Crenshaw isn’t that he chose to serve, but rather that he continues to serve with moral leadership and intellectual curiosity. Interviewing Crenshaw earlier this year, I was struck by his honesty about controversial issues like entitlement reform and the need to persuade younger Americans that conservatism offers their better future (and their salvation from debt oblivion). Crenshaw happily credits Trump where he agrees with him, but also has the intellectual integrity, unlike many Republicans, to challenge Trump where he doesn’t.
And while the the GOP candidate obviously has a strong understanding of foreign policy and national security issues, he also has a compelling domestic agenda. When I asked Crenshaw what he wants to see as the policy landscape 20 years from now, he didn’t hedge.
“I want to see a fiscally responsible government that has saved Social Security from insolvency and reined in our runaway healthcare costs; an education system that is flexible and dynamic and free from federal overreach and prepares our children for all types of careers, not just a four-year degree; and a Congress that has taken back control of federal agencies that create massive amounts of regulations and rules that burden our economy.”
Crenshaw is likely to win election to the House of Representatives in November. If he does, we’ll all be better for it.
