GOP Rep. Dan Newhouse survives another primary after impeaching Trump. He still has a fight ahead.

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., has survived another Trump-endorsed primary challenge in his bid for re-election, qualifying for November’s general election. But his path to victory isn’t a given yet: he now faces fellow Republican Jerrod Sessler in November, who former President Donald Trump endorsed in April, in a GOP-versus-GOP clash.

Sessler, a former NASCAR driver and Navy veteran, received the greatest amount of votes in the August primary, winning 31% when The Associated Press called the race Thursday. Newhouse came in second, receiving nearly 25% of the vote so far, with more mail ballots still to count.

Newhouse is one of just two House Republicans who voted to impeach him following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. If Sessler wins the November election with Trump’s support, it would drive that number down again.

“There is no question that Trump’s endorsement is important in that district,” said Dr. Cornell Clayton, Director of Washington State University’s Thomas S. Foley Institute of Public Policy and Service.

Indeed, Trump exerted his influence multiple times on the race so far, endorsing not just one but two candidates in the primary. On Aug. 3, just five days before the all-party primary, the former president also endorsed Tiffany Smiley, a Republican who came onto the state’s political scene after a failed run for Senate against Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.

“The dual endorsement that happened was disappointing to us, but we also have been in communications with the Trump team, and so we understood why they were doing it, and it really had nothing to do with us, and frankly, had very little to do with Tiffany Smiley,” Sessler told NBC News Wednesday, before the primary was called. “It was late enough