Posted on 05/27/2014 7:36:59 PM PDT by Din Maker
U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall, at 91 the oldest-ever member of the U.S. House, was ousted Tuesday in the Texas Republican runoff by a candidate barely half his age.
Backed by powerful national groups with strong tea party ties, 48-year-old former U.S. Attorney John Ratcliffe was able to paint Hall as too cozy with the GOP establishment after 34 years in office. He forced the incumbent into his first runoff in 17 terms in the House then won that on Tuesday.
Hall first ran for political office in 1950 and won his seat when Jimmy Carter was president. He was a Democrat until switching parties in 2004.
No Democrat is running in the district that stretches from suburban Dallas east to Louisiana and north to Oklahoma — meaning Ratcliffe will be headed to Washington after the November general election.
Even before the final results were in, Hall called the race "not one of my best ones, that's for sure."
In Texas' March primary, Hall won 45 percent of the vote compared to Ratcliffe's nearly 29 percent — but since no one won a majority in a six-way race, Hall was forced into the first runoff his congressional career.
Ratcliffe was backed by the Club for Growth and Senate Conservatives Fund, but Hall bristled at the notion that he's not conservative enough. He won endorsements from tea party favorite Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota and leading Christian conservative voice and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Neville Govender, also casting his ballot Tuesday in Heath, said he had never bothered to vote in a congressional election until this year because he knew Hall would win in a rout.
"I just believe in what he stands for, his energy," Govender said of Ratcliffe. "I believe we need change."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I voted for Hall.
I don’t think it is bad to bring in fresh conservative blood but I am not going to pretend Ralph Hall was not conservative.
I was surprised Hall lost even in his hometown here in Texas.
Well now we have to pay him and his replacement.....I am not saying that is a bad thing but financially we lost.
LOL Not likely, since he was a democrat when he entered public office, but they were all alive and kicking at the time.
I don’t live in Texas, so I don’t know a lot about Ralph Hall.
I have read that he is a good man and a pretty good conservative.
However, issue for me is he is 91 years old.
He simply is old to be an effective fighter in DC. And we need
effective fighters more than ever in DC to fight the GOPe’s.
He has served honorably and I wish him well in retirement.
Did Ralph Hall gain any voters? So he got 48% in the runoff and first round?
Hall’s rival in next Tuesday’s GOP primary runoff, John Ratcliffe, is a former U.S. attorney whose law partners include Johnny Sutton, the U.S. attorney who put Ramos and Compean behind bars.
Ratcliffe had nothing to do with the case.
“We were U.S. Border Patrol Agents assigned to protect the Texas/Mexico border, but Johnny Sutton of the U.S. Attorney’s office saw it differently,” Ramos says in a video released Tuesday afternoon by the Hall campaign.
“We were sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison for doing our jobs,” Compean says. “Congressman Ralph Hall stood up for us in our time of need.”
ALL the tea party backed candidates won in Texas tonight! Ralph Hall is part of the problem. No more though!
Bachmann endorsed Todd Akins against the tea parties and Palin.
I saw Rep Hall on local TV yesterday and—forgive me Lord—he is a breathing goo puddle and not much more. He left the building with Elvis long ago.
I was not surprised. He has been cozy with Establishment as the article alludes, and it had not been forgotten.
He has gotten by with miles of road and press because of his age, but these are not the times for patronizing anyone when there are more capable, deserving candidates running.
I am sure he was a good man in his day, but this is war, and he has missed some dang easy shots. There is a price for that because people depend on these representatives to defend them with confidence, not on a wing and a prayer.
91 years old...about time the folks in TX told him ‘TIME TO CALL IT QUITS’
he got aged out...good new Texas voters...thanks.
Disgusting that Hall ever served this long
Todd Akin was the most conservative on some issues. Brunner supported amnesty in the NDAA.
Congrats to the winner, but here’s a note to the AP writers: when someone is 91 saying that someone else is “barely half” half age doesn’t really have the right ring to it.
Yep. And the thought of serving the voters is the last thing that motivates these types.
Its all about them and the power. What ever happened to TERM LIMITS?
I know, hb, but it was just meant to be funny! B^)
Akin and Bachmann cost us a Senate seat, Palin and the tea parties asked him to drop out, after opposing him in the first place, they were correct.
It seems that not many people remember that Hall was first elected to this Congressional seat in 1980, as a Democrat.
But, he was one of the "Blue Dog" conservative Democrats, voted for most of the articles of impeachment against Clinton, and endorsed Bush in the 2000 election.
He switched to the Republican party just before he filed for the party primary in 2004.
They were right but Im talking about at the point in time where Akin was endorsed. It is not like he was Cornyn or Dan Coats.
Seriously. Do we really need 80 and 90 y.o. people running the country? Even if they’re a decent sort, it’s time to quit and let the next generation do their part.
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