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More than two years after being convicted as part of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a Texas Republican is looking to return to Washington, D.C., but this time as a member of Congress.
Lubbock's Ryan Zink is one of seven Republicans in a crowded GOP primary for the 19th Congressional District. Current U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, is not seeking reelection, setting the stage for one of the wildest primary races in Texas.
Last year, President Donald Trump issued pardons or commutations for an estimated 1,500 people charged with the attack on the Capitol.
Zink had been charged with a felony and two misdemeanors and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Zink didn't respond to a request for an interview on Friday, but told Manny Diaz at KTAB in Abilene early last year that he was wrongly prosecuted.
"I never entered the building," he said. "I never assaulted anyone. I never damaged any property."
Federal agents ultimately used video of him during the attack to prove he was on "restricted grounds" — even if not technically inside the building. In that video, Zink says, "We knocked down the gates! We're storming the Capitol! You can't stop us!"
Zink has since said the "storming the Capitol" line was just a figure of speech.
Zink is certainly a long shot in the race for the district, which stretches from Lubbock to Abilene. All six of the other Republicans in the race have outraised him, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Zink isn't the only one convicted that day who has since tried to run for office. In Longview, Republican Ryan Nichols, also pardoned by Trump, initially filed to run for Congress in the 1st Congressional District against U.S. Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Whitehouse, but later dropped out. And in West Virginia, Republican Derrick Evans is running for the U.S. House.
Jake Lang, also pardoned, announced he is running for the U.S. Senate in Florida. He told the Miami New Times he expects others arrested that day to run of office too.
"The Jan Sixers have risen out and emerged out of these prisons and these gulags, these lions' dens, and we're going to slay the giant now, just as David has," he said.
Hear more about the race to replace Arrington in Congress in this week's Texas Take Podcast. The top competitors in that race are trying to convince voters in television ads and mailers that they are most aligned with Trump, even though the president hasn't endorsed anyone in the contest.
 | Jeremy Wallace, Texas politics reporter |
Who's Up, Who's Down
A daily stock market-style report on key players in Texas politics.
Up: Mayes Middleton.
After spending more than $10 million of his own fortune on his race for Texas Attorney General, the Republican who represents Galveston in the State Senate, may be closing the gap with Chip Roy, the Republican Congressman who has been leading the field in most public polling. A University of Houston survey published this week found Middleton making up 20 percentage points on Roy since the fall. While still trailing, Middleton has improved his chances of keeping Roy under 50% of the vote and forcing a runoff in May, giving him more time to catch Roy.
Down: Minnesota.
While border czar Tom Homan said a massive immigration crackdown there is coming to an end, the fallout for that region won't be ending anytime soon. Beyond the lives of three people killed, including two U.S. citizens, thousands of people detained by federal agents were sent to detention facilities in Texas, New Mexico, and elsewhere. Texas currently leads the country in the number of people held in immigration detention. As of late January, more than 18,600 detained immigrants are in Texas. Those new Minnesota cases are jamming federal courthouses around the country as lawyers push for their release. "Even if the constant emergency of this siege ends now, we still have a lot of fallout from it," Minnesota immigration attorney Graham Ojala-Barbour told The New York Times.
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