Six million dollars was not going to stop Dan Crenshaw.

The former Navy SEAL has had to face much tougher odds — nearly losing his life in Afghanistan — than his uphill Congressional race he found himself in Tuesday. When the vote counting began, the 33-year-old Crenshaw was well back in third place in the Republican Primary for the 2nd Congressional District that covers large parts of northern Harris County.

With early voting and absentee ballots counted, Crenshaw was almost 2,000 votes out of second place.

And sitting in second place was Kathaleen Wall, a wealthy campaign donor who had plowed $6 million of her own money into her race for a bevy of television ads. She also had two of the biggest names in Texas politics on her side: Gov. Greg Abbott and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

“We knew we got a late start,” Crenshaw said in an interview with conservative radio host Michael Berry.

But there was Crenshaw telling his supporters in northern Harris County on Tuesday morning that he had volunteers at every precinct in the district making a big final push.

“We’re feeling optimistic,” he said early Tuesday. “We’re feeling good.”

Then the surge took over. By the end of the day, Crenshaw was dominating at the polls, offsetting the hole he was in to start the day. Crenshaw was the leading vote getter on Tuesday, 8 percentage points ahead of State Rep. Kevin Roberts and 10 percentage points up on Wall.

The result allowed Crenshaw to slip into 2nd place by just 145 votes, according to unofficial results from the Harris County Clerk’s office. That puts Crenshaw into a run-off on May 22 against Roberts, who won the primary overall, but fell short of the 50 percent he needed to avoid the runoff.

“We clawed our way in there,” Crenshaw told Berry.

Crenshaw, a retired lieutenant commander spent 10 years in the SEALS that included tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan.Crenshaw nearly lost his vision when an IED blast in Afghanistan nearly cost him his life and put him into a coma for five days. He survived, but lost his right eye which forces him to now wear an eye patch.

MORE ON CRENSHAW: Wounded Navy SEAL makes bid for Congress

Roberts said he has immense respect for Crenshaw and said voters can expect a high-integrity campaign from both. He said he’ll continue to make the same case to voters that he’s been making since November: that he has the proven conservative credentials. Elected to the state Legislature in 2016, Roberts has focused on his experience. He is the only one of the Republican candidates to hold elective office.

“It really feels good,” Roberts said on Wednesday about finishing first in the primary.

He said with one candidate spending $6 million, he wondered if the would be a difference maker early on. “It shows you can still run an old school campaign - meeting people and listening to them and what they are going through,” said Roberts, who manages the business side of the Lanier Law Firm in Houston. “And money can’t buy that.”

Roberts and Crenshaw are expecting to get together later this month at a gun range, thanks to Roberts winning an auction to spend an hour shooting with a Navy SEAL, Crenshaw said.

Big spenders, bad results

Wall’s defeat is another stunning blow for wealthy self-financers who have consistently lost campaigns for Congress in Texas even while heavily out spending their opponents.

Since 2000, 21 candidates have put at least $1 million into their own campaign. Eighteen lost.

WALL’S SPENDING SURGE: Republican spends $5.9M in race for Congress

What often happens is that self funders are often political novices who try to use their money to overcome their inexperience, said Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

In Wall’s case that inexperience showed up in her speaking engagements where she struggled to remember talking points during forums. Her campaign also avoided interviews with the media, turning down repeated interview requests with the Houston Chronicle.

On election night, Wall spoke to supporters late on Tuesday but never announced she had lost.

“Thanks to everyone for running a good race,” Wall told a couple dozen supporters at Cafe Adobe as election results came in. “And thanks to the voters of Congressional District 2 for trusting me with their vote.”

Roberts and Crenshaw are battling to see who will take on Democrat Todd Litton in November. Litton easily won his Democratic primary against four other Democrats.

The candidates are seeking to replace U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, a Republican from Atascocita who announced late last year that he would not seek re-election in 2018. The winner of the race will get a 2-year term that pays $174,000 a year.

Todd Ackerman contributed to this report.