Washington Examiner congressional reporter Lauren Green said that President Donald Trump can expect pushback from his voting base if he endorses Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) reelection bid.
Trump said he is going to endorse a candidate in the Republican Senate primary runoff between Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after the two candidates failed to garner 50% of the vote in Tuesday’s election. The president also said he will be asking the candidate he doesn’t endorse to “immediately” withdraw from the race.
Green said Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico has “a three-month cushion” to campaign if Cornyn and Paxton engage in a runoff election, and the two Republicans will spend “a lot of money and a lot of time” campaigning against each other instead of against Talarico. At the moment, Green said Trump is likely to endorse Cornyn, citing how Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is “really” pushing the incumbent candidate.
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“So, however that shakes out, I think that there will be some blowback there. I think that if Trump asks Paxton to step down, I talked to a lot of strategists today, the MAGA base is going to be very up in arms that the president is backing an institutionalist,” Green said on LiveNOW from Fox on Wednesday. “But then I also think that there are a lot of supporters that support Senator Cornyn that are not willing to support Attorney General Paxton just because he is somewhat scandal-ridden.”
Green said an issue Cornyn faces is an “area” of Trump voters who “don’t think” they resonate with Cornyn or how “institutional” he is. She said many view Cornyn as “a Bush Republican,” something contrary to Trump’s image as an “outsider” in politics.
Thune said it would be “enormously helpful” if Trump got involved in this race, and an early endorsement “saves everybody a lot of money.” Both Thune and Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) have backed Cornyn over Paxton, with the latter citing that Democrats have “the energy and enthusiasm” since Democratic turnout was higher than Republican turnout in this primary race.
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Besides the Senate primary race, on Tuesday, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) lost his reelection bid to challenger state Rep. Steve Toth. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) is also heading to a runoff against his opponent, Brandon Herrera, on May 26.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) is seeking a fourth term as governor and won his primary race easily with over 80% of the vote. He will face Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa in the general election.