It’s another Wright vs. Ellzey showdown in Congressional District 6, this time with a twist.

Republican activist Susan Wright is in a runoff with state Rep. Jake Ellzey to fill the unexpired term of the late U.S. Rep. Ron Wright. Ellzey ran unsuccessfully against Ron Wright in the 2018 GOP primary for District 6. Now he’s campaigning against Wright’s widow.

The contest features more than a Wright/Ellzey competition. It’s also a smackdown between former President Donald Trump, who’s backing Wright, and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who had endorsed Ellzey.The winner will chart a new course for the district, which includes parts of Tarrant, Ellis and Navarro counties. Ron Wright died in February after contracting COVID-19. Elected in November to a second term, Wright was also battling cancer.

The exchange between the campaigns has already started.

Wright’s post-election statement was mild.

“I’m looking forward to making my case to voters in the runoff, winning, and representing the 6th District with the true conservative leadership they deserve,” she said in a prepared statement.

Wright, 58, was not made available to comment Sunday.

But her chief consultant, Matthew Langston, unloaded on Ellzey.

“State Representative Jake Ellzey is an opportunistic ladder-climbing RINO who’s taken money from Never-Trumpers like Bill Kristol, bashed our Senator Ted Cruz, and flip-flopped on amnesty,” he wrote.

Langston said Ellzey voted in favor of a gas tax hike and at a 2020 state House candidate forum said “no vouchers” when asked a question about government-funded school vouchers.

Ellzey’s campaign said the lawmaker is against tax increases and supports school choice, but not government entitlement programs. The bill cited by Wright’s campaign as a tax increase was an existing tax on rental cars and the vote was necessary to alleviate confusion on how it was collected, an Ellzey campaign consultant said. Ellzey voted for Trump in his presidential races.

“Ellzey is now a winless 0-3 against the Wright family,” Langston said, “after second-place finishes to Ron in the 2018 primary, Ron in the 2018 runoff, and now Susan in the 2021 special — and he’s going to make it a clean 0-4 sweep next month in the runoff.”

Ellzey told The Dallas Morning News that he’s staying positive.

“We’ve got to join together, not tear ourselves apart with the infighting,” Ellzey said. “That’s why I don’t talk about anybody else. I just talk about what I see is important in this country and where we go from here.”

Ellzey’s consultant, Craig Murphy, said he looked forward to a robust debate on the issues, and criticized Wright for not showing up at numerous District 6 forums.

“Everyone will be waiting to see if she’s willing to show up at debates,” Murphy said. “How can you handle the likes of AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.] if you can’t debate?”

The Trump effect

Wright finished first in the 23-person race for District 6 in part because of Trump’s support.

Last week, a day before early voting ended, Trump made a surprise endorsement of Wright, and followed it up with a telephone town hall meeting sponsored by the anti-tax group called the Club for Growth.

Trump is the biggest name in Republican politics, and his backing gives Wright credibility with the Trump voters and ultra conservatives who may be drawn to a tiny runoff election. It makes her more than a widow candidate and a GOP activist. She’s now part of team Trump and the America First agenda.

“We won every county on Election Day,” Langston said. “The main factor is just how strong the Trump endorsement was. Our main goal is to get that information out to voters.”

Trump’s backing came in the 11th hour, and some voters may have been confused about Trump’s relationship with other candidates running in the Trump lane, including former Department of Health and Human Services chief of staff Brian Harrison, who was backed by at least 100 former Trump administration officials.

Ellzey, 51, will have to counter Trump’s endorsement, either with folks like Perry or his own political gifts.

“I keep running the same campaign I’ve always run,” said Ellzey, who is a retired Navy commander and combat veteran. “I thought the president did a great job, and there were a lot of candidates who were clamoring and hoping that he would endorse them. And so he endorsed Susan.”

Ellzey said he expects that Trump voters will also support his campaign.

In his favor, Ellzey represents a Texas House district that’s anchored in Ellis County, where he lives, and has a significant percentage of the district’s vote. But Wright is from Arlington, inside the county that houses most of the district’s voters.

Race could get nasty

Ellzey has vowed a positive campaign.

But he’s sure to face a barrage of political attacks from Wright and her supporters, including the leadership of the Club for Growth.

The Club for Growth paid for media ads and mailers that cast Ellzey as an anti-Trump Republican who does not support the former president’s agenda. Perry responded, vouching that the attacks against Ellzey were false.

Ellzey hopes his positive message will stand up against what will be unleashed by Wright and her supporters. He criticized the attack aimed at him by the Club for Growth, suggesting that the group’s efforts could have resulted in Democrat Jana Sanchez making the runoff.

“If people were worried about this being a Republican versus Democrat race and flipping this district, why would they go after another Republican and only one of them?” Ellzey asked. “So you’ll have to ask Club for Growth why they did that.”

Ellzey says he’s come through the attacks a stronger candidate.

“I weathered the storm and I did so successfully,” he said. “This should be a lesson to people from outside our community that we don’t like that here. And it’s not the way we win races in our party.”