In a Republican Party caught in a perpetual crossfire between those who demand unrelenting loyalty to President Donald Trump and Never Trumpers, freshman U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw works in a rare space in between, where his political star is ascending independently of the push and pull from the White House.

It’s an approach that is allowing the Houston Republican to thrive politically in a way that belies his rookie status in politics.

Last month in Houston, he hosted former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, widely considered one of the GOP’s best hopes for the White House after Trump’s tenure ends.

He’s being called on nationwide to endorse candidates for Congress and even state legislatures, a role typically reserved for major players in national politics.

And his fundraising has sent shock waves through Congress. In nine months, Crenshaw has raised nearly $3 million. It makes him the No. 7 fundraiser in the U.S. House of Representatives — in league with congressional leaders such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

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More Information Top 7 fundraisers in Congress 1. Steve Scalise - Louisiana Republican and Minority Whip, $8.9 million 2. Devin Nunes - California Republican who is highest ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, $5.7 million 3. Kevin McCarthy - California Republican and House Minority Leader, $5.5 million 4. Adam Schiff - California Democrat and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, $4.4 million 5. Nancy Pelosi - California Democrat and House Speaker, $3.7 million 6. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - New York Democrat in her first term, $3.4 million 7. Dan Crenshaw - Houston Republican in his first term, $2.7 million

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It’s a series of political accomplishments that would have seemed hard to imagine just two years ago, when the war veteran and retired Navy SEAL with the distinctive black eye patch had just earned a master's degree from Harvard and was still not even a candidate for Congress.

He filed to run in November 2017 and ultimately overcome a massive fundraising disadvantage and his own political inexperience to defeat more seasoned politicians in a heated GOP primary. Even though his primary opponents embraced Trump more, Crenshaw, now 35, became one of the rare Republicans to win a primary in 2018 without pledging devotion to the president.

Now he’s in high demand, as his story and political profile have led to appearances on “Saturday Night Live” and “The View,” along with the Sunday-morning talk shows to which new members of Congress are rarely invited.

“You don’t have that type of fundraising unless you have a national constituency,” said former Florida congressman David Jolly, who broke with the GOP last year because of concern about Trump’s conduct. “And that national constituency is what is helping him create his own unique lane in politics. He’s proving he doesn’t need McCarthy or Trump. He’s doing it on his own brand.”

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Jolly said Crenshaw has established a place from which he can challenge GOP leaders when he needs to in a way that is unheard-of for most freshmen and backbenchers in Congress. In that respect, he likened Crenshaw to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the liberal Democrat from New York with 5.7 million Twitter followers and who was clout to operate separately from Democratic leaders in Congress, especially Pelosi.

But critics, particularly Democrats, say Crenshaw is not as independent from Trump as he portrays himself to be and is relying on special-interest political action committees to boost his fundraising. Top donors to Crenshaw include oil and gas companies, real estate interests, Wall Street firms and health care corporations.

Elisa Cardnell, a Houston Democrat who is challenging Crenshaw in 2020, said the freshman congressman claimed in an online ad that he was going to be different and look for unity but instead is “another Republican who refuses to stand up to Donald Trump.”

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Crenshaw’s balancing act can be seen in a nearly 12-minute video he released last week explaining his positions on what is happening in Syria. Almost 11 minutes of that video is dedicated to dismantling nearly every argument that Trump has made in supporting the removal of U.S. special forces from the Syrian-Turkish border. In mid-October, Trump justified his actions in Syria saying on Twitter: “The Endless Wars Must End!”

Crenshaw ticked off the list of White House arguments for pulling troops out of Syria. “Let’s try the no-more-endless-wars slogan,” Crenshaw said. “And that’s just what it is, it’s a slogan. It makes us feel good. I think this makes us feel morally righteous if we say that we’re against warfare.”

But Crenshaw says the mission is about deterring ISIS and preventing terrorists from having the space to plan an attack on the U.S. homeland.

“I promise you that,” said Crenshaw, who fought in both Iraq and Afghanistan until a roadside bomb ended his military career and blinded his right eye. “I’ve met these people. I know them. I’ve targeted them. They think about it every single day. We can say ‘No more wars,’ but they don’t have to.”

Embed 4011829Z-1572292036166 Crenshaw Syria

Crenshaw also spends time in the video touting Trump’s success in fighting ISIS, even though the U.S. troop buildup and activity in Syria started under President Barack Obama.

“They never had an operational stronghold after Trump was done with them,” Crenshaw said.

The juxtaposition isn’t an accident. Crenshaw, even as a Republican, said he feels a responsibility to stand up to the administration when he disagrees, as well as to voice his support.

“The balance you have to strike is respectful disagreement,” Crenshaw said, adding that he tries to bring the same approach when confronting Democrats.

But he has found exceptions to that rule, too.

Out-Trumped in GOP primary

In March, about six months after the death of U.S, Sen. John McCain, who served more than five years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, Trump attacked the party’s 2008 presidential nominee. Trump, who never served in the military, told reporters he was “never a fan” of McCain and that he never would be, and that McCain was weak on veterans’ issues and “didn’t get the job done for our great vets at the [Department of Veterans Affairs] and they knew it."

Crenshaw was one of the first to call on Trump to knock it off.

Mr. President, seriously stop talking about Senator McCain. — Rep. Dan Crenshaw (@RepDanCrenshaw) March 21, 2019

“Mr. President, seriously, stop talking about Senator McCain,” Crenshaw said.

Embed 4011829Z-1572292104660 CrenshawTweetTrump

Then when Trump led a rally of supporters in a chant of “send them back” in reference to four women of color serving in Congress, Crenshaw again called out Trump, saying he “shouldn’t suggest Congresswomen should leave because of their rhetoric.”

Crenshaw’s readiness to oppose Trump has its origins in how he got to Congress.

In the 2nd Congressional District, which covers much of northern and western Houston, he had to overcome longtime GOP fundraiser Kathaleen Wall, who spent $6,2 million of her own money, mostly on television ads declaring herself a mirror image of Trump politically, and another opponent who launched campaign mailers that accused Crenshaw of being disloyal to the president.

“When you are campaigning you are selling yourself,” Crenshaw said. “It would have cheapened my own brand, and cheapened how I view myself, to sell my candidacy, as you say, as Trump’s wingman.”

But Crenshaw said he never saw himself as anti-Trump either and defended the president during a national interview on ABC’s “The View” when pressed on Trump calling some people who took part in a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va. “very fine people.” One attendee plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman.

Crenshaw disputed that Trump was calling white nationalists nice people and said the president’s comments had to be examined more carefully.

“Why do you apologize for him?” co-host Joy Behar fired back.

Veteran Republican strategist Ford O’Connell said there are not many people who have fans both among Trump loyalists and critics, but Crenshaw is one of them. Haley and Crenshaw are two of the rare Republicans who can oppose the administration without becoming targets for Trump and his supporters.

Crenshaw said that’s partly why he respects Haley. Haley promoted the administration’s positions as U.N. ambassador, but more recently has criticized Trump for the Syria pullout and for leaving the U.S.’ Kurdish allies vulnerable to violent attacks.

“I feel like she and I have a very similar tone,” Crenshaw said.

Crenshaw invited Haley to Houston in September for a youth rally. Though Haley is in high demand and rejects dozens of similar requests each month, the former South Carolina governor agreed to take part.

But Crenshaw’s balancing act has brought him double trouble at times. In the days after the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton in August, Crenshaw’s comments on guns had him taking fire from both sides of the aisle.

In a video released around the time of the killings, Crenshaw extols the virtues of the AR-15 assault-style rifle for self-defense, bringing criticism from the left that he was encouraging the use of the weapons. But in statements on social media, Crenshaw said he was willing to explore “red flag” laws that take guns away from people found to be a danger to themselves or others. That brought ire from conservative gun owners who say those laws make it too easy for the courts to take away guns from people without proof that they intend to hurt anyone.

Millions in campaign cash to lift profile

Few are in the same league as Crenshaw when it comes to raising money. While the average member of Congress has raised about $700,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, Crenshaw has collected just over $2.7 million — more than twice as much as any other Republican running for Congress in Texas. That ranks him as the No. 4 fundraiser among the 197 Republicans in the House.

Those ahead of Crenshaw are more senior House members who can help pass or kill legislation that matters to deep-pocketed donors and political action committees. What makes Crenshaw remarkable, Jolly said, is that he doesn’t have that legislative power, yet he’s stilled tapping into a river of financial support from PACs.

“That definitely gets him noticed in Congress,” Jolly said.

With that kind of money, Crenshaw could give to other campaigns and groups such as the Republican National Congressional Committee — building favor to help him climb the ladder in Congress more swiftly, or to run as a statewide candidate in Texas in the future, Jolly predicted.

Crenshaw’s campaign stressed that it’s not just big PACs fueling his fundraising. In a news release, his campaign stressed that 94 percent of his contributions were for $200 or less — a sign that small-dollar donors are also getting behind his candidacy.

But Cardnell, who is hoping to challenge Crenshaw for re-election, is quick to point out how much corporate PAC money Crenshaw is bringing in. Crenshaw has raised over $340,000 from special-interest political action committees including from oil companies, insurance firms and groups such as Koch Industries, a company owned by limited government megadonor Charles Koch.

“We know the corrupting influence of money in politics and that’s why we are running our campaign differently,” said Cardnell, a Navy veteran who has raised $177,000.

Crenshaw’s district is still considered to favor a Republican, though the margin has become narrower over time. In November 2018, he beat Democrat Todd Litton by carrying nearly 53 percent of the vote.

Crenshaw’s celebrity status launched quickly after he won, thanks to a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” who joked that Crenshaw looks like a hit man in a porn movie because of his eye patch.

SNL comedian Pete Davidson apologized for the joke a week later and Crenshaw appeared on the show, drawing praise for accepting the apology and firing lighthearted zingers back at Davidson.

As some Republicans voice concern that Trump’s controversies will hurt the party in 2020, many GOP candidates are eager to win an endorsement from Crenshaw.

Two weeks ago, he endorsed Illinois Republican Jeanne Ives in her bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, an Illinois Democrat. Last month, he also endorsed a state House candidate in Sarasota, Fla. Crenshaw said he’s backing fellow Navy veteran and Republican Fiona McFarland because she’s a friend of a friend.

Crenshaw said one of his goals is to try to help other young conservatives — particularly women — run for Congress.

“It is important for me to go build a coalition and build a future of young dynamic conservatives,” Crenshaw said. “That really is a big focus of mine.”