近20名候选人将于周六角逐德克萨斯州已故共和党众议员罗恩·赖特(Ron Wright)的席位，他于2月份因新冠肺炎和癌症并发症去世。
这场竞选是拜登政治时代的第一次竞争性选举，但对于不同党派的候选人来说，这场竞选的赌注仍然大相径庭。
对民主党人来说，该州第六国会选区的竞选，包括达拉斯-福斯沃斯郊区的多样化部分，将考验自拜登11月获胜以来，以及自随后1月国会山骚乱的余波以来，这个共和党倾向的地区变得多么友好。
11月，特朗普在2016年赢得12个百分点后，仅以3个百分点的优势赢得了该地区。竞选中的民主党领袖贾娜·林恩·桑切斯(Jana Lynne Sanchez)表示，差距缩小是她在整个地区看到的转变的一个有希望的迹象。
桑切斯曾在2018年与赖特竞选，他告诉美国广播公司新闻，“我认为这是一个机会，可以说让我们推动国家前进，让我们引入拜登总统的议程——这是对他议程的公投，因为我们会赢，因为这个地区的人支持他的议程。”
“我知道这个地区是可以赢得的，我知道特别选举是艰难的，但我也知道民主党在这个问题上是正确的，我们有人们正在寻找的正确信息，”她补充说。
随着民主党人希望抓住时机调动他们的基础，共和党候选人继续努力应对国家政治叙事，即前总统特朗普的影响是否为胜利提供了有意义的跳板。
特朗普一直没有参加竞选，直到选举前一周。但在周一发表的一份声明中，特朗普表示支持赖特的遗孀苏珊·赖特，并将她的候选人资格与她已故丈夫的候选人资格联系在一起。
这位前总统在周四福克斯新闻的电话采访中进一步重申了他的支持。同一天，他参加了由保守的反税收团体“增长俱乐部”主办的电视市政厅会议，支持赖特。
“她会很棒，她真的会很棒，”特朗普在福克斯上说。
“我正在寻找合适的人来支持，我认为当我支持别人时，这意味着很多，”他补充说。
特朗普在竞选周期的最后几天支持赖特，绕过了他自己政府中也在竞选的两名前成员——卫生和公众服务部的布莱恩·哈里森(Brian Harrison)和在小企业管理局工作的塞里·金(Sery Kim)。
哈里森的竞选口号“永远美国第一”是对特朗普政策平台的礼帽提示，他的竞选广告中充斥着他参加特朗普时代椭圆形办公室会议的图像。
金吹捧她在特朗普政府中扮演的有色人种妇女的角色，她最近对《德克萨斯州论坛报》提起诉讼，此前新闻机构称她关于不希望更多中国公民来到美国的言论是“种族主义者”。
与这位前总统没有直接关系的共和党人也发现自己将他的政治资本编织到自己的品牌中，希望脱颖而出。
德克萨斯州众议员迈克·埃尔泽(Mike Ellzey)是共和党候选人中的顶级筹款人，他最近因特朗普评论家比尔·克里斯托(Bill Kristol)2018年捐赠的250美元而受到辩护，当时他首次与他现在打算取代的已故众议员竞选。埃尔泽依靠前州长里克·佩里(Rick Perry)的高调德州品牌来确认他对特朗普的支持，里克·佩里也曾担任特朗普政府的能源部长。
但并不是每个共和党人都在争取特朗普的支持。竞选中唯一公开反对特朗普的共和党候选人迈克尔·伍德告诉美国广播公司新闻，尽管他在11月投了特朗普的票，但选举的后果使他重新评估了特朗普作为共和党主要声音的地位。
伍德在接受采访时说:“自选举日以来，包括1月6日在内，他所做的一切都让我震惊不已，我觉得，正因为如此，他丧失了再次领导我的政党的权利，现在是共和党在我们成为永久的少数党之前开始这样说的时候了。”。
孤星州的选举要求候选人赢得大多数选票，才能赢得彻底的胜利。如果没有候选人赢得超过50%的选票，那么前两名得票最多的候选人将进入决选。候选人不受政党竞争的约束，不会进入决选，周六特别选举的结果可能会导致党内竞争或民主党和共和党之间的竞争。但是候选人的绝对数量有效地保证了某种形式的决选。
德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校德克萨斯政治项目主任吉姆·汉森告诉美国广播公司新闻，他并没有将这场竞选评价为“特朗普候选人”与“非特朗普候选人”之间的竞争，而是作为选民中间立场“解决点”的衡量标准。
然而，汉森预测，一旦比赛结束，将会有一个明确的结果。
“最不可能的结果是，这个地区，不知何故，当烟消云散，有一个决胜，这成为一个民主党的地区，”他说。
Texas special election marks 1st competitive contest of Biden era
Nearly two dozen candidates will face off Saturday in the race to succeed the late Republican Rep. Ron Wright of Texas, who died in February after suffering from COVID-19 and complications from cancer.
The contest presents the first competitive election of the Biden political era, but the stakes of the race remain vastly different for candidates across party lines.
For Democrats, the race for the state's 6th Congressional District, which includes diversifying portions of the Dallas-Forth Worth suburbs, will test just how tossup-friendly the Republican-leaning area has become since Biden’s win in November and since the subsequent fallout over the Capitol Hill riot in January.
In November, Trump won the district by just 3 percentage points after winning by 12 points in 2016. Jana Lynne Sanchez, the leading Democrat in the race, says the narrowed margin is a promising sign for the shift she's seen across the district.
"I think it's really a chance to say let’s move the country forward, let's import President Biden's agenda -- this is a referendum on his agenda because we will win because people in this district support his agenda," Sanchez, who previously ran against Wright in 2018, told ABC News.
"I understand that this district is winnable, and I understand that a special election is tough, but I also understand that Democrats are on the right side of the issues, and that we have the right message that people are looking for," she added.
As Democrats hope to seize the moment to mobilize their base, the Republican candidates continue to grapple with the national political narrative of whether former President Trump’s influence offers a meaningful springboard to victory.
Trump stayed out of the race until the week leading up to the election. But in a statement issued Monday, Trump threw his "Complete and Total Endorsement" behind Wright's widow, Susan Wright, and linked her candidacy to that of her late husband.
The former president further reiterated his support during a phone interview Thursday on Fox News. That same day he participated in a tele-town hall hosted by the conservative anti-tax group, Club for Growth, to back Wright.
"She's going to be great, she's really going to be tremendous," Trump said on Fox.
"I'm looking at the right people to endorse and I think that when, when I endorse people, it means a lot," he added.
By endorsing Wright in the last days of the campaign cycle, Trump bypassed two former members of his own administration who are also in the running -- Brian Harrison of the Health and Human Services Department and Sery Kim, who worked at the Small Business Administration.
Harrison’s campaign slogan, "Always America First," is a hat tip to the Trump policy platform and his campaign ads are peppered with images of him participating in Trump-era Oval Office meetings.
Kim touts her role in the Trump administration as a woman of color, and she recently filed a lawsuit against the Texas Tribune after the news outlet called her comments about not wanting more Chinese nationals coming to the U.S. "racist."
Republicans without direct ties to the former president also found themselves weaving his political capital into their brands in hopes of standing out.
Texas state Rep. Mike Ellzey -- a top fundraiser among Republican candidates -- was recently put on defense over a $250 donation from Trump critic Bill Kristol in 2018, when he first ran against the late congressman he’s now aiming to replace. Ellzey leaned on the high-profile Texan brand of former Gov. Rick Perry, who also served as energy secretary in the Trump administration, to affirm his backing of Trump.
But not every Republican is jockeying for Trump’s support. Michael Wood, the only openly anti-Trump GOP candidate in the running, told ABC News that despite having voted for Trump in November, the aftermath of the election made him reevaluate Trump’s position as a leading Republican voice.
"Everything he's done since Election Day, including January 6, really shook me to the core, and I felt like, because of that, he's forfeited his right to lead my party ever again, and it's time for Republicans start saying that before we become a permanent minority party," Wood said in an interview.
Elections in the Lone Star State require candidates to win a majority of the vote in order to cinch an outright victory. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the votes cast, then the top two vote-getters advance to a runoff election. The candidates are not bound by party rivalry to advance to a runoff, and the outcome of Saturday's special election could lead to either an intraparty contest or a competition between a Democrat and a Republican. But the sheer number of candidates in the race effectively guarantees a runoff of some kind.
Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, told ABC News he doesn’t size up the race as a contest between "the 'Trump candidates' versus the 'non-Trump candidates'" but rather as a gauge for a middle ground "settling point" for voters.
Still, Henson predicts a definitive outcome once the race concludes.
"The least likely outcome is that this district, somehow, when the smoke settles and there's a runoff, that this becomes a Democratic district," he said.
