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Spring Training for the Election Canceler by Harold Meyerson (Texas)
snip
Tuesday’s Republican senatorial primary in Texas will go to a May runoff between the top two finishers: incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, an establishment Republican if ever there was one, and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a MAGA zealot who’s been indicted for securities fraud (he paid a fine to escape going to trial), impeached by the very right-wing lower house of the state legislature, and who narrowly escaped conviction by the similarly right-wing state Senate. More because of than despite his scandals, Paxton is the darling of the Texas far right, and won 40 percent of Republican votes in Tuesday’s primary, while Cornyn got 42 percent. As neither got 50 percent, the runoff now looms.
With the real possibility that Democrats will not only capture the House in November’s elections but the Senate as well, the Senate Republican leader, South Dakota’s John Thune, has been imploring Trump to endorse Cornyn, who’s generally seen as a stronger candidate than Paxton. To be sure, any Democrat has a steep uphill climb to win statewide office in Texas; it hasn’t been done since 1994. But state legislator and Christian seminarian James Talarico, who won the Democratic Senate nomination on Tuesday, has a chance, and his Mister Rogers personality, welcoming moderates into the fold and not excoriating those who disagree with his progressive politics, certainly offers a contrast to Paxton’s record of infidelity and chicanery, not to mention his loud and abrasive persona.
Since Tuesday, Trump has hinted that he’s on the verge of endorsing one of the two Republicans, and the current signs are that he’ll go with his ego (backing Cornyn as the better choice to hold the Senate in Republican hands) rather than his id (which vibrates to the same fuck-’em-all impulses as Paxton’s).
But he’s done more than that: He’s demanded that his endorsement should end the contest, should compel the non-endorsee to drop out. On Truth Social, he posted that the race cannot “be allowed to go on any longer. IT MUST STOP NOW! Both John and Ken ran great races, but not good enough. Now, this one must be PERFECT! I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE! We must win in November!!!”
With the real possibility that Democrats will not only capture the House in November’s elections but the Senate as well, the Senate Republican leader, South Dakota’s John Thune, has been imploring Trump to endorse Cornyn, who’s generally seen as a stronger candidate than Paxton. To be sure, any Democrat has a steep uphill climb to win statewide office in Texas; it hasn’t been done since 1994. But state legislator and Christian seminarian James Talarico, who won the Democratic Senate nomination on Tuesday, has a chance, and his Mister Rogers personality, welcoming moderates into the fold and not excoriating those who disagree with his progressive politics, certainly offers a contrast to Paxton’s record of infidelity and chicanery, not to mention his loud and abrasive persona.
Since Tuesday, Trump has hinted that he’s on the verge of endorsing one of the two Republicans, and the current signs are that he’ll go with his ego (backing Cornyn as the better choice to hold the Senate in Republican hands) rather than his id (which vibrates to the same fuck-’em-all impulses as Paxton’s).
But he’s done more than that: He’s demanded that his endorsement should end the contest, should compel the non-endorsee to drop out. On Truth Social, he posted that the race cannot “be allowed to go on any longer. IT MUST STOP NOW! Both John and Ken ran great races, but not good enough. Now, this one must be PERFECT! I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE! We must win in November!!!”
https://prospect.org/2026/03/05/trump-senate-texas-republicans-election-canceler/