As Republicans seethe over Trump’s decision to elevate the weaker, more extreme Senate candidate in Texas, a Democratic operative who knows the state explains what the path to victory now looks like.
Trump Screws Himself So Badly on Texas Race, GOPers Visibly Stunned
As Republicans seethe over Trump’s decision to elevate the weaker, more extreme Senate candidate in Texas, a Democratic operative who knows the state explains what the path to victory now looks like.
— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) 2026-05-20T15:21:55.947Z
https://newrepublic.com/article/210706/trump-screws-badly-tex-race-gopers-visibly-stunned
Donald Trump just endorsed MAGA nutjob Ken Paxton in the Texas GOP primary for Senate, potentially killing off establishment incumbent Senator John Cornyn. As GOP senators absorbed this news, reporters described them as “visibly dismayed” and “stone-faced.” Senator Lisa Murkowski openly declared that Trump has now put the seat “in jeopardy,” asking: “How does that help strengthen the president’s hand when we lose a state like Texas?” Translation: Trump has screwed himself and his party in a big way. This might cost them the seat, and at a minimum it makes it much harder to hold. So is Texas actually gettable for Democrats? We talked to Democratic operative Sawyer Hackett, a veteran of Texas races. He explains why Paxton is much weaker than Cornyn, why a perfect storm of conditions in the state could bring about the unthinkable, what Democrat James Talarico’s path to victory looks like, and what could still go wrong for Democrats.
Here is a transcript of this podcast
trump did not endorse Paxton until Tuesday of last week after early voting had started. A ton of vote by mail ballots had no doubt been already cast. Corynyn had more money than Paxton and had a great deal of good material to work with. Paxton is a major league asshole. Cornyn is still running negative ads on Paxton. This will be fun to watch.
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