The wipeout-in-progress of GOP politicians in Senate and gubernatorial races across the country is perfectly exemplified by the disastrous series of decisions that led to Ken Paxton being nominated in Texas.
President Donald Trump endorsed Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the GOP primary, based on Cornyn’s previous criticisms of Trump and his acknowledgment that Senate Republicans did not have the votes to pass the SAVE America Act. Cornyn was not a perfect senator, but the decision to uproot him came primarily from his unwillingness to tell Republican voters exactly what they wanted to hear when reality did not reflect it.
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Paxton, in contrast, was the MAGA yes-man. He would do exactly what Trump and his supporters wanted, making Cornyn expendable. It did not matter that Cornyn was a generic Republican or that Paxton was the worst possible candidate the GOP could nominate, with his own scandals and unpopularity. GOP voters deliberately put a weaker candidate up in an unfavorable election year because Trump told them they could afford to do so and because he and his team wanted another yes-man in his corner.
The race has yet to be called, but Paxton is trailing far-left Democrat James Talarico by 19 points with 55% of the vote tallied. He is running nearly 150,000 votes behind Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), and Talarico has nearly a 200,000-vote lead over the Democratic candidate running against Abbott. Yes, Republicans may have lost in Texas anyway, but the undeniable truth is that more voters in Texas were encouraged to vote against Paxton than they would have been against Cornyn.
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The arrogance that led the GOP to nominate Paxton can be found in several election losses. Darline Graham offered nothing as a Republican senator, with little grasp of the issues, but Trump appointed her to the seat and endorsed her in the GOP primary. She lost in South Carolina. Mike Collins, the weaker of the candidates in the GOP primary in Georgia’s Senate race, got swamped by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), losing by more than the GOP nominee for governor did. Republican voters in those races followed Trump right off a cliff, nominating sacrificial lambs for Democrats to slaughter in a favorable political environment.
Trump created the poor political environment with his lack of focus on affordability, despite that being what voters elected him to handle in 2024. He then weakened the GOP in several races by endorsing weak candidates. Paxton is the most prominent example, made all the worse because it was obvious throughout the cycle that Republicans would be playing with fire by nominating him and his scandals.