VAN ZANDT COUNTY, Texas — Jill Dutton narrowly won the House District 2 (HD2) seat in an upset in the special election runoff with Brent Money.
Republican party insiders viewed this race as one that would set the tone in the lead-up to the March 5 primary. A bellwether of who will control the direction of the Texas GOP.
Money secured the support of top Texas Republicans, including Gov. Greg Abbott, Sen. Ted Cruz, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and the far-right political faction of the party.
Dutton had the support of allies of House Speaker Dade Phelan – such as Texans for Lawsuit Reform — and former Gov. Rick Perry.
However, she doesn’t see her win as anything more than voters finally getting representation.
“This is truly just a win for the constituents of House District 2, really nothing more than that. We have gone eight months without a representative, and it's been a long time and many of them have been really upset about not having representation in the House and in the district,” Dutton told us on Inside Texas Politics. “And, you know, frankly, they're not concerned about any proxy war. They're not concerned about what's going on within the party. They just want good representation that's going to listen to them and will help them.”
House District 2 has been without representation since last year when former state Rep. Bryan Slaton was expelled from the House. Dutton will serve out his remaining term.
Dutton narrowly defeated Money – by only 111 votes. But she was not surprised the vote was so close.
“I knew it was going to be close. And that was one of the things I was telling voters as I was talking to each and every one of them. And we needed every single person who was for me to actually go out and vote,” Dutton said.
And she dismissed Money’s accusation that she stole the seat by turning out Democrats.
“And that is absolutely ridiculous. I won the two counties that have the most Republicans in those counties that carried Trump. He won the county that is mostly Democrat. Even Trump received 10% of the Democrat vote. And, you know, I just reject that. I have no control over who comes out in a special election, especially in a runoff,” Dutton said.