Business owner wins tight Texas primary, aims to make history by flipping deep-blue House seat

A small business owner and former city councilman has won a tight primary fight and is now tasked with flipping one of Texas’ bluest House districts for Republicans, the Associated Press projects.

Republican Darrell Day, who served as a member of the Arlington City Council and founded an executive search business, defeated his opponent, former Southern Methodist University football player David Blewett, in Tuesday’s GOP primary runoff for the state’s 32nd Congressional District.

Day will now face Democrat Julie Johnson, a member of the Texas House of Representatives, in the November general election. The winner will replace Democrat Rep. Colin Allred, who is running for the U.S. Senate.

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Democrat Julie Johnson and Republican Darrell Day. (Julie Johnson for Congress/Darrell Day for Congress)

The fight for Republicans to flip the district will be tough considering it encompasses heavily urban areas north and east of downtown Dallas. The district was redrawn following the 2020 census, adding more solidly Democrat-leaning areas.

Should Day win the race, his victory would mark a historic underdog win.

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Democrat Texas Rep. Colin Allred. (Emil Lippe/Getty Images)

Allred, who has represented the district since 2019, won re-election in 2022 following the redistricting with 65% of the vote. He won in 2020 in the old district with just 52% of the vote.

The top election analysts rate the race for Texas’ 32nd Congressional District as either “solid Democratic” or “safe Democratic.”

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