| Republican candidate Pete Olson overcame a primary vote deficit with rival Shelley Sekula Gibbs to comfortably secure his party's nomination for the Congressional District 22 race in November.
Olson, who celebrated with family and supporters at a Sugar Land restaurant Tuesday, is now set for what is expected to be a highly contested race to unseat incumbent Democrat Nick Lampson, who has made inroads in the GOP-friendly district with his moderate stances.
Olson won by a more than 2-to-1 margin, with 22,610 votes to 7,118 for Sekula Gibbs. These two were among 10 on the ballot for the March 4 primary.
“Tonight the voters sent a clear message in favor of conservative values,” said Olson on his victory. “This district deserves to have a Congressman that represents their values and will be their voice on issues that matter to them - protecting national security, ending illegal immigration, restoring fiscal discipline and winning the war.”
Olson won by large margins in three of the four counties within Congressional District 22. He won with a strong 77.4 percent of 10,853 votes in Fort Bend County, 66 percent of 1,827 votes in Brazoria County and 59 percent of 7,447 votes in Harris County. In Galveston County, 236 people cast votes for Olson, compared with 247 for Sekula Gibbs.
Sekula Gibbs had criticized Olson during the runoff for his ties to Washington, D.C., where he had lived for more than 18 years previously. Olson had worked on the staffs of two Republican U.S. Senators from Texas: Phil Gramm and his successor, John Cornyn. Previously, he had been a fighter pilot for the Navy as well as a liaison to Congress for the Navy.
Olson was born in Washington state, but his family soon moved to the Clear Lake area, where he grew up and graduated from high school. He then attended Rice University and earned a law degree at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2007, he moved to a home with a Sugar Land address in the unincorporated area of Fort Bend County.
In a sign of things to come, a spokesman for Lampson's campaign issued a statement Wednesday morning on the runoff results, accusing Olson of supporting the Trans-Texas Corridor (which Olson denies) and saying Olson has opposed the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides medical care for children of families with low incomes.
“His opponent is a Washington insider with little or no knowledge of this district,” reads a portion of the statement issued by Lampson's campaign.
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