GOP’s Pete Sessions Forces Runoff in New Texas Seat After 2018 Defeat

(Bloomberg) -- Former Representative Pete Sessions began his comeback Tuesday, clinching a spot in a Republican primary runoff in a different Texas district than the one he represented in Congress for 22 years.

The runoff will be held on May 26 in the Waco-area district that is being vacated by retiring Republican Bill Flores. Sessions was defeated in 2018 by Democrat Colin Allred in his previous district, north of Dallas.

After he left Congress, Sessions emerged as a peripheral figure in investigations related to the impeachment of President Donald Trump. A federal grand jury in October subpoenaed Sessions for records of his dealings with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two associates of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani who were indicted on campaign-finance charges.

Sessions wasn’t accused of criminal wrongdoing and denied participating in Giuliani’s effort to oust Marie Yovanovitch, then the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Sessions did write a letter to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo in 2018 alleging that Yovanovitch had criticized the Trump administration, and he received campaign donations from Parnas and Fruman.

A dozen Republicans initially sought to succeed Flores, who endorsed Waco businesswoman Renee Swann in the race. A Texas primary runoff is triggered when no party candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, and the winner will be the favorite to carry the solidly Republican district in November. With 81% of the vote counted, it was not clear early Wednesday, who would be Sessions’ opponent in May. But Swann was leading for the second spot, according to the Associated Press.

When Sessions, whose father, William Sessions, was a director of the FBI, lost in 2018, he was the chairman of the House Rules Committee and had previously served as the head of the Republican campaign committee that led the GOP takeover of the House in 2010.

To contact the reporter on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Anna Edgerton, John Harney

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