Sessions’ victory against Tea Party challenger

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) has won his primary, beating back a Tea Party-backed challenger.

{mosads}Sessions led local Tea Party leader Katrina Pierson by 69 percent to 31 percent with early votes counted when the Associated Press called the race.

The House Rules Committee chairman and former National Republican Congressional Committee chairman came prepared for the primary, raising and spending nearly $1.5 million for the race.

Pierson showed some early signs that she might be competitive. She won the backing of FreedomWorks and Tea Party Express as well as from Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) father, Rafael Cruz, and conservative blogger Michelle Malkin. But she struggled with fundraising throughout the campaign, raising less than $150,000 in the entirety of her campaign, not nearly enough to challenge the well-known Sessions in Dallas’s expensive media market.

Sessions also gave Pierson little to attack him on. He has amassed a solidly conservative voting record over the years — even FreedomWorks gives him an 81 percent lifetime score — and he reminded voters in his ads that he was one of the architects behind the GOP’s 2010 takeover of Congress. 

Sessions is the heavy favorite for reelection in his solidly Republican district now that he’s won the GOP nomination.