Less than an hour after he was projected the winner of the hard-fought Republican runoff for Congress from Texas' Waco-area 17th District Tuesday night, former Rep. Pete Sessions made clear to Newsmax his allegiance to President Donald Trump and that he would make a priority of fighting for the Trump agenda.
"I'm going back to Congress to fight for the president," said Sessions, who represented the Dallas-area 31st District for 22 years until his upset defeat in 2018.
Sessions, 65, subsequently moved to the 17th District when incumbent Republican Rep. Bill Flores announced his retirement. On Tuesday, he won the GOP nomination with 54% of the vote over Flores-backed businesswoman Renee Swann.
Although both ran as conservatives, Swann wanted to cut off trade with China completely, and Sessions warned that Texas would lose at least $17 billion if she got her way.
Trump himself did not endorse Sessions. But in his previous stint in the House, Sessions had a friendly relationship with the president and told us he "admired the president's agenda of job creation and greater U.S. economic power. I want to help him."
The former congressman remarked that he also had a good relationship with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with whom Trump has recently been at odds.
"He's a great guy, and if the president asks me, I'll tell him Dr. Fauci's expertise is medical science and not political science and to just leave him where he is," said Sessions.
Given the strong Republican leanings of the 17th District, Sessions is a strong favorite to return to Congress this fall.
Noting that his father, the late FBI Director William Sessions, died on June 12, Pete Sessions said "I wish he was here now but I'm sure he's in heaven and smiling tonight."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.