Former Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson is back in the political spotlight after winning the Republican primary runoff for a Texas state House of Representatives seat on Tuesday.
Pierson unseated state Rep. Justin Holland, one of many Republican incumbents targeted by Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) and Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for his votes against key state GOP policies.
The national spokeswoman for Trump’s 2016 campaign launched her state House bid without support from strong GOP leaders such as Abbott, former President Donald Trump, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), despite the fact she was running against one of their targets and being a vocal supporter of school vouchers.
Only six anti-voucher Republicans were defeated in March’s primary elections — just short of the number needed to secure a pro-voucher majority in the Texas House, according to Abbott via the Texas Tribune.
Despite not donating a single dollar to Pierson before the March primary, Abbott campaigned with her leading up to the runoff, and Paxton endorsed her — a sign that leadership is seeking her vote to help push any voucher program through the state House.
GOP leaders had initially hesitated to back Pierson’s campaign, worried that her unstable position within the party could cost them the school voucher battle. Pierson has long touted her grassroots ties, which has drawn favor from those she campaigned with during her Tea Party days, but her previous clashes and criticisms of dominant Republicans, including Abbott, caused some party backers to keep their distance.
Pierson had ruffled several feathers by the time she became a spokeswoman for Trump in late 2015 ahead of his first presidential campaign, particularly after some accused her of inflating the role she played while volunteering for Cruz’s campaign in 2012. She previously dismissed those claims, calling them “sour grapes.”
In 2020, she was active in the debunked election fraud claims perpetrated by the former president and his allies after he lost to President Joe Biden. She testified before the U.S. House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Attack, and her text messages offered a look into how different Trump advisers played a role in the eventual riots at the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
Abbott and Paxton praised Pierson’s win as a victory for hard-line conservatives on Tuesday.
“Congratulations to @KatrinaPierson for DEFEATING Austin RINO Justin Holland,” Paxton’s campaign account said in a post to X. “You have sent a strong message to Austin that if members continue to prioritize Democrats over our Conservative Agenda they will not return in 2026.”
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Holland has represented the 33rd state House district since 2017. However, he drew recent fire from Abbott and Paxton after he opposed school vouchers and was one of 60 state House Republicans who voted to impeach the attorney general. Paxton was acquitted by the state Senate last September.
The ousted state representative also faced criticism from his GOP voting base after he voted in favor of a bill that would raise the minimum age to purchase certain semi-automatic rifles to 21. It was a notable move for Holland, considering he had authored a bill two years ago to make Texas a “Second Amendment sanctuary state.”