Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Tuesday in a Republican runoff election for the Texas Senate seat.
The Associated Press called the race for Paxton around 9:00 p.m. ET, after Paxton secured 62.6 percent of the vote compared to Cornyn’s 37.4 percent.
Paxton received a last-minute endorsement from President Donald Trump, making him the favorite in the race after months of polling that put him neck-and-neck with Cornyn. In a March primary, Cornyn got 42 percent of the vote to Paxton’s 40, which sent the race to a runoff.
It’s been a bizarre race worthy of the Texas GOP. Paxton, the state’s Attorney General since 2015, has spent the last several years mired in a spiraling series of scandals. Connoisseurs will remember that Paxton first entered Texas politics in the early 2000s as a stalwart of the state’s conservative evangelical community. Since then, he’s been impeached by his own party over abuse of office and corruption allegations, including an episode in which a donor and friend purportedly gave his mistress a job. Paxton was acquitted in an impeachment trial. Last year, his wife Angela announced that she was seeking a divorce “on biblical grounds.” She made no endorsement in the race.
Paxton campaigned against Cornyn, claiming to be the true MAGA candidate in the race. He ran television ads near Mar-a-Lago this spring; he accused Cornyn of being a “Fake Republican” and “not a Trump guy.” In the spring, Paxton ran television ads in Palm Beach, Florida, where Mar-a-Lago is located.
As if the President needed any encouragement, Paxton’s gambit to make the primary runoff about Trump worked. He endorsed Paxton last week, much to the ire of Senate GOP leadership and Republicans more broadly. Polling matchups had, for months, shown that Paxton was a far weaker option against Democratic candidate James Talarico in the general election in the fall compared to Cornyn, who has served as a senator for Texas since 2002.
One Texas GOP strategist told TPM in April that, were Paxton to win the primary runoff, it would draw in enormous Republican financial resources that could be spent elsewhere in the country as part of the effort to save Paxton from potential defeat to Talarico.
But Paxton’s victory on Tuesday is yet another demonstration, if anyone needed reminding, that Trump’s grip over the Republican base, specifically among primary voters, remains as ironclad as ever.
“Forget it, Jake, it’s Texas.”
Has any Republican politician besides Brian Kemp stood up to Trump without losing career?
To me, I’m glad Paxton won. Yes, he’s absolutely horrific. But in the Senate, he becomes very diluted, having to get his crap through 99 other people, half of which will treat him as $#it on their shoes. He will have no power. And that’s just where he belongs.
Put this in Where Things
Paxton wins in TX. Dump endorsed last week after late polls showed him ahead. Dump will take credit. He will disavow his fellow scumbag if he loses to Talarico in November.
ETA. At this point, 64% in, it’s almost two to one Paxton. Texas definitely likes its scumbags.
ETA2. There is now another rethug senator who owes him nothing. If not less.
If the GQP isn’t considered a cult after Massie and Cornyn, I don’t know what is.
These people would follow the First Felon off a cliff and drink whatever he handed them, even if it meant their deaths.