Sources in and around the Texas GOP and Senate Republican caucus tell NOTUS that Senator John Cornhole Cornyn and his allies are at the point where, a little over nine months to go from a primary election against Picasso-faced Attorney General Ken Paxton, really all they can do is hope convicted felon President Trump intervenes on his behalf and holy shit he is so fucked if he thinks Donald will endorse him over Paxton in the heated contest – which sources already say isn’t happening.
Some are hoping that a situation similar-ish to what happened in Georgia shakes out, where Trump was told on no uncertain terms that Marjorie Taylor Greene was going lose by double-digits to Dem Senator Jon Ossoff and thus led the ultimately successful effort, even commissioning internal polling, to talk her out of it. Texas MAGA Congressman Keith Self said fat Donald will “probably have to get involved, because we do not want to lose a safe Republican seat in the Senate,” as the last poll that went public showed 2024 Senate loser Collin Allred up by 1 percent in a general vs Pax.
Thing is that unlike Greene, Paxton’s already launched his campaign and it might be a safe bet that Trump privately greenlit it in a private conversation. And Allred’s edge is a margin of error, not freaking 12 percent or however much that Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll showed Ossoff ahead of Sporkfoot in Georgia. Also, Paxton might have some kind of kompromat on Trump (maybe).
“It feels like Republicans are slow-walking into a disaster in Texas,” a “senior Senate GOP aide” told NOTUS. “Right now, it doesn’t look like John Cornyn has a path to victory against Ken Paxton, and Ken Paxton is completely capable of blowing a competitive general election. It’s fair to say folks on the Hill are getting concerned.” And yet NOTUS writes “One Trumpworld [ARGHHH! ENOUGH WITH THE GODDAMNED ‘TRUMPWORLD‘ METONYM!] source told NOTUS that the president is either likely to endorse both Cornyn and Paxton or simply not endorse at all, adding that Trump and those around him don’t see an upside to going all-in on just one candidate when both men are allies.”
Yeah, sounds like Paxton has this in the bag. Cornyn should just give up and retire to a lobbying firm.