Oldest-ever Rep. Ralph Hall ousted in primary runoff
AUSTIN, Texas - 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.
Also in Texas, Republican voters cast out Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in favor of a state senator who sharpened his policy and debating skills as a firebrand radio talk show host.
Dan Patrick, who emerged as the front runner from the first round of voting, easily beat Dewhurst in the primary runoff, ending the political career of a multimillionaire energy businessman who has been lieutenant governor since 2003. Dewhurst had said this would be his final campaign.
In the congressional runoff, Ratcliffe relied on modern analytics to better target would-be voters, while Hall relied on more traditional techniques like direct mailings and walking cities and towns to chat with voters.
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.
The only World War II veteran left in Congress seeking re-election, Hall promised that his next term would be his last but said he wanted to remain in office long enough to help the Republicans retake the White House in 2016.
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.
In the congressman's hometown of Rockwall - where Hall once had a brush with notorious outlaws Bonnie and Clyde while working in a pharmacy as a boy - his campaign had been bracing for the toughest test of the candidate's very long political life. At an election party near city hall on Tuesday, a supporter wrote county-by-county results on butcher paper stuck to the wall.
The old-school approach didn't resonate with all voters.
Anna DiGirolamo, a 19-year-old student at Texas A&M University, was voting for her second time Tuesday at the city hall in Heath, where Ratcliffe was once mayor. She said she researched both candidates by watching some of their commercials on YouTube.
"He's been here for a long time and he's done good things, but I think it's time for a new opinion," DiGirolamo said of Hall, who didn't open a Twitter account until last year.
An avid jogger, Hall went skydiving when facing a 2012 primary challenge and had planned to do so twice this year but canceled due to icy conditions. Instead, he made a playful television ad pointing to the wrinkles on his face and calling them scars of congressional fights with liberals.
Even before the final results were in, Hall called the race "not one of my best ones, that's for sure."
Asked about voters who stayed home for a runoff featuring light-turnout, he responded: "I don't know what you do to them. You fuss at `em. But it's a runoff and you can't ever tell."
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."