Lambert got 52% of the vote, a fairly narrow victory over his challenger Liz Case, who ended up with 48%.
Lambert was one of two incumbents who survived aggressive primary challenges after breaking with the governor and others who wanted some sort of voucher plan to pass, and who voted to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton.
McMurry Political Science Professor Paul Fabrizio says the power of the party leadership was on display yesterday. But Lambert and State Rep. Drew Darby overcame the onslaught of money poured into their challenger's efforts, “In a political sense it’s an epic battle that these two won. They are triumphant, and others will look at them differently.” But Fabrizio says that doesn’t mean it’ll be smooth sailing ahead, “They will definitely feel the pressure to get in line. Because of the losses felt by others who were like them, and also the possibility that the speakership (of the Texas State House) might be in new hands come January, the new session, those two have to feel much more lonely."
This was Lambert's toughest re-election battle since he was first elected in 2016, and he ended the night expressing gratitude, “My staff has put in a tremendous amount of work and hours and I appreciate them so much but I really appreciate the voters in district 71 who participated in this election both early voting as well as today. It just means a lot to me that they participated in this election.”
At an election results watch party hosted by the Abilene Republican Women's Club Case’s supporters were optimistic early on, when it looked like she had the lead. Many supporters like Caleb Kelso Jr. voiced optimism, “I’m hopeful. It’ll be curious to see how much of Abilene turns out."
But as the night progressed, Lambert surpassed Case in the vote count. Spirits stayed high at the party as Liz Case reminisced that the process allowed her to meet so many constituents, “That’s been probably the most fun part of this is having interaction with them."
But when the race was called it was obvious that, in Case’s own words: “I’m not going to be everybody's candidate.”
If the close race caused Lambert some anxious moments, other targeted Republicans had an even harder night watching the election results. Five of the Republicans who were targeted lost their primaries. Four others now face a runoff.
McMurry’s Paul Fabrizio says the Republican strategy to unseat rural Republicans who strayed from the party line on impeachment and vouchers is short-sighted, “The rural part of Texas is where the Republican strength is. And you have the governor and the attorney general attacking the power centers in those rural parts of Texas.” Fabrizio described the move as ’nationalizing local races’, “When you look at it from the perspective of rural and urban politics what took place last night was a bad night for rural politics. It was a bad night for rural voters because the incumbents who lost had been looking out for them."
Lambert survived to take on Democrat Linda Goolsbee in the November general election. Goolsbee, who was unopposed in the primary, is making her second run for the state house seat. In 2022, Lambert claimed victory in the general election with 81% of the 71st State House District vote.