Wife Of Late Texas Rep Ron Wright Announces Bid To Fill His Seat

Susan Wright, the widow of the late Republican Rep. Ron Wright, announced Wednesday that she is running in the upcoming special election to succeed him.

Wright was expected to announce her bid, and filed with the Federal Elections Commission on Wednesday. Her husband was elected to Texas’s 6th congressional district in 2018 and reelected in November, but died from COVID-19 on Feb. 8.

Ron Wright had also been battling lung cancer since June 2019.

“The taxpayers of the sixth district deserve a proven conservative in Congress who will stand up for them and do whatever it takes to stop the radical left’s socialist government takeover,” Wright said Wednesday, according to a local outlet. “I’m running for Congress to continue my husband’s legacy by supporting economic growth, reforming our broken health care system and defending Texas conservative values.”

Texas’s 6th district extends southeast from Arlington and the Fort Worth suburbs, and has trended Democratic in recent years. Though Ron Wright won reelection by nearly nine points in November, former President Donald Trump won the district by just 3%.

Texas Gov. Gregg Abbot said Tuesday that the special election would occur on May 1 in the form of a jungle primary, where all candidates run against one another regardless of party. If no candidate clears 50%, then the top two will advance to a runoff election.

Former Texas Democratic state Rep. Lydia Bean announced her candidacy on Tuesday as well, saying that her state needs “new leaders in Congress” willing to tackle infrastructure issues and combat the pandemic.