Dan Crenshaw raced into Congress as outsider, now a challenger alleges he's 'cozied up' to DC swamp

From being supportive of Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas., to launching a primary campaign against him, Texas GOP state Rep. Steve Toth says there needs to be new leadership in Washington, since Crenshaw has, he says, "cozied up" to the swamp. 

"I got behind Dan in 2018 when he decided to run," Toth said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show last week. "I mean, it was a man-crush. I mean, here we have a Navy SEAL war hero that was running. He said he was going to upset the apple cart. He said he was going to be a disruptive influence. He said he was going to fight the Democrats."

Crenshaw was first voted into office in 2018 to serve the second congressional district of Texas. Prior to being in office, he served in the U.S. military as a Navy SEAL for ten years. 

"Instead, as soon as he got there, he cozied up to them [the Democrats] and decided it was good to be here," Toth said. "It was good to be part of the swamp."

Hardcore MAGA calls Crenshaw a "RINO"

Over the past few years, Crenshaw has gotten into some controversy among Republicans and has been called a "Republican in Name Only" (RINO) by the MAGA wing of the GOP. 

In January 2023, he was rejected by House Republicans to chair the House Homeland Security Committee following his much-maligned labeling of dissident GOP lawmakers as "terrorists."

Crenshaw was a vocal critic of House Republicans who opposed the leadership of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and repeatedly derided the Republicans who didn't throw their support behind him, resulting in multiple rounds taking place until he was finally voted speaker. 

Crenshaw has also been criticized by fellow Republicans for his alleged support of "red-flag" laws and a bill that funded state immunization information programs, which some conservatives have labeled "vaccine databases." The Texas state legislature has rejected the anti-gun red-flag laws.

Crenshaw's voting record seems to contradict Toth's claim about the anti-gun laws. Crenshaw introduced legislation in January of this year, the "Preventing Unjust Red Flag Laws Act", a bill aimed at prohibiting federal funding for the implementation and enforcement of federal "red-flag" laws. The NRA Political Victory Fund endorsed Dan Crenshaw for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2022 General Election in Texas, calling him "a staunch defender of the Second Amendment."

In February, Crenshaw was hit with an ethics complaint by a nonprofit after he appeared to have said he would "kill" media personality Tucker Carlson. Crenshaw appeared to make the comment at the end of an on-camera interview in a so-called "hot mic" moment.  “If I ever meet him, I’ll f–ing kill him,” he seemed to say -- perhaps hyperbolically -- in a video of the interview. 

Crenshaw denied on X that he threatened to kill Carlson after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., asked him about it, writing "lol, no."

Crenshaw's support of Ukraine criticized

Toth criticized some of Crenshaw's voting record, like when he voted to send money to Ukraine amid its war with Russia. 

"When we should have been working on closing the border, Dan Crenshaw was sending billions of dollars in defense of Ukraine's border, but not our own border," he said. "We've seen as many kids die every year that were lost in all of Vietnam to fentanyl poisoning. I, on the other hand, have been raising billions of dollars as a member of the Appropriations Committee to close our border. Dan has done nothing but fight us. It's pathetic."