AS I KEEP SAYING, PEOPLE ARE UNHAPPY WITH THE ESTABLISHMENT, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT REMAINS IN DENIAL ABOUT WHY: GOP fights off primary challengers in deep-red Texas.

Powerful GOP chairmen in deep-red Texas are fending off primary challengers in an election cycle dominated by the anti-establishment fervor gripping the country.

At least three of the Lone Star State’s seven House committee chairmen — new Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, Rules Chairman Pete Sessions and Science, Space and Technology Chairman Lamar Smith — are working to beat back challenges from the right ahead of the March 1 primary.

So is Texas Rep. Bill Flores, chairman of the 170-member conservative Republican Study Committee, who was swept into office during the Tea Party wave in 2010. And Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) will face off this fall with an independent candidate with no political experience.

“I’m sure when you have a chairman title, someone will say that makes you a target, that makes you part of the establishment,” said Flores, a former oil executive who’s squaring off next week with two GOP challengers, former McLennan County Republican Party Chairman Ralph Patterson and local businessman Kaleb Smith.

Sixteen-term GOP Rep. Joe Barton, the dean of the Texas delegation and a former Energy and Commerce Committee chairman, has two challengers of his own, while 85-year-old GOP Rep. Sam Johnson, a decorated U.S. fighter pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war, is defending his Dallas-area seat against three rivals. And the man taking on Rep. John Carter has questioned the powerful House appropriator and former Texas judge’s conservative credentials.

Even Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, the GOP gadfly and frequent cable TV guest, has a challenger. Rancher Simon Winston has said Congress has devolved into a circus and Gohmert is “one of the main clowns.”

To be certain, all of the incumbents are favored to win reelection. They are better connected, better funded and have better name ID than their long-shot challengers.

Johnson and Gohmert have both endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz, a fellow Texan, for president — underlying their own anti-establishment credentials.

But Texas is no stranger to upsets. In 2014, Rep. Ralph Hall, a World War II veteran and the oldest member of Congress at the time, was ousted by a Tea Party-backed challenger, John Ratcliffe, a former federal prosecutor and mayor.

I think that primary challenges are good. No incumbent should feel too secure.