Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert easily fended off his first primary challenge in more than a decade in Texas on Tuesday.
Local press called the race with about 5 percent of the vote in, and the results were expected to pour in throughout the night. He faced cattle rancher Simon Winston and Anthony Culler, who is a stay-at-home dad.
This was Gohmert’s first primary challenge since first being elected to Congress in 2004.
Winston challenged Gohmert’s time in Washington and said that Gohmert was a “career politician who’s been in Washington over a decade,” according to a statement on his website.
Winston recently told The Hill newspaper that Gohmert was an “embarrassment to East Texas” due to his wild statements and positions.
Gohmert launched a long-shot bid for speaker in 2015 against John Boehner and is a staunch Tea Party lawmaker. He criticized Boehner for pushing through the CR-omnibus spending bill back in 2014.
Gohmert’s congressional district is in the northeastern part of the state, east of Dallas.
