NBC News projects that Paxton, who received a late endorsement from Trump, will advance to the general election to face Democrat James Talarico.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has defeated Sen. John Cornyn for the Republican Senate nomination, NBC News projects, the latest challenger backed by Donald Trump to unseat an incumbent.
Paxton will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in a November race that could become key to the fight for the Senate majority.
Trump endorsed Paxton last week, giving him a last-minute boost in his bid to oust Cornyn, who has been in the Senate since 2003. Cornyn and Paxton faced off Tuesday in a head-to-head runoff after no candidate won more than 50% of the vote in the initial multicandidate March primary.
Ken Paxton was impeached on 20 counts of abuse of office. Texas really doesn’t have any better person to advance in the Republican primaries.
I mean, who better to represent Texas?
“And somehow, things got worse”
Its a bit of an aside but watching Jasmine Crockett go on to endorse Corey Bell, AIPAC super-fan, in the Bush/ Bell primary (MO-01), and also watching her revel in the Hassan supoena; it tells me DNC voters in Texas made the right choice regarding Talarico.
Democratic turn out in primaries has been way up with more informed electorates over all, generally but not always, picking better candidates. RNC turn out is down, with only the core cult showing up, so maybe this is an expected result. Rather than looking to reform the RNC, former Trump voters are abandoning electoral politics for the time being?
It makes me wonder how viable these low-energy Trump picks will be in a general. Trumps ability to drive turn out has never translated to other candidates, and they’ve never been weaker than they are now. I don’t think Dem’s in Texas could as for a better shot.
Corey Bell
Genocide supporter Wesley Bell
Progressive Cori BushSorry was pooping my whole butt out when I was typing that out.
Shit this one is going to cost AIPAC some serious money.
As a Canadian, the fact that a Trump endorsement still helps candidates win, shows me that this is still what Americans want.
Trump isn’t the hero Americans need, but he’s the one they deserve.
You’re not incorrect to feel that way, but for context, this is a republican primary. The only people voting for this are the ones without enough shame to have changed their party affiliation in the past 1-10 years, so there’s definitely a sampling bias in these specific results. We won’t know what the rest of the voters want until November.
We won’t know what the rest of the voters want until November.
This the same state that keeps re-electing Raphael Cruz.
In Texas we can vote in either party’s primary. The only restriction is that you can only vote in the runoff for the party for which you initially voted. It’s not uncommon for Democrats to vote in the Republican primary to choose a least worst candidate or the one they believe is more likely to lose in November. Theres currently a feeling that Talarico is more likely to beat Paxton than Cornyn. This carries over to other states, with the maga crowd (who’s more likely to participate in primaries/runoffs) putting trump-endorsed candidates on the ballot and that these candidates are more likely to lose in November.
I live in the southern US, and I am shocked to still see the political billboards that state “Endorsed by Trump.” I thought for sure those endorsements were a thing of the past this year. Turns out, you’re absolutely right.
He very well could have won without it.
Now that he’s set, I expect Paxton to use his position to get one of the friendlier courts to let him block fundraising that could benefit Talarico. Assuming he’s already plotting convenient criminal “investigations” focused on him and/or his family members.
