Sell wins Texas House race for Arrington’s open seat

Texas House candidate Tom Sell (R) is projected to win the race to lead outgoing Rep. Jodey Arrington’s (R-Texas) 19th Congressional District, according to preliminary results from Decision Desk HQ.

Sell, an agriculture lobbyist, campaigned in a solid Republican district against Democratic opponent Kyle Rable.

The Texas Republican won Trump’s endorsement, along with endorsements from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

Sell previously worked for the district under former Rep. Larry Combest (R-Texas), “serving as his right-hand man when Combest chaired the U.S. House Agriculture Committee,” according to Sell’s campaign website .

After working to advance the 2002 farm bill, Sell returned home to Lubbock, Texas, and co-founded the consultancy firm Combest, Sell & Associates in 2005. The firm promotes itself as having more than 15 years of “defending agricultural interest.”

“A coalition of agricultural interests from across the nation sought out [Sell and Combest’s] counsel and leadership to protect the agricultural baseline in the 2005 Budget Reconciliation Process – an effort that was ultimately very successful,” the firm’s website states.

Arrington, who was first elected to the House in 2017, announced last November that he planned to retire from Congress at the end of his term. He took credit for helping Trump get the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed and for helping “fulfill his mandate from the people.”

“It just seems like a good and right place to leave it,” he said in an interview with Fox News last year, in explaining his announcement to retire.

The 19th Congressional District is nestled along Texas’s border with New Mexico and is home to the cities of Lubbock and Abiliene.