President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed the controversial Texas Attorney General over incumbent Senator John Cornyn to upend the Texas Senate race. Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that Paxton had always been loyal to him while Cornyn 'was not supportive of me when times were tough.'
'Therefore, Ken Paxton has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next United States Senator from the Great State of Texas,' Trump said. The President had originally said he would endorse in the closely watched race the day after primary Election Day, which was more than two months ago. But with the runoff election looming in one week, Trump finally decided that it was time.
'There are those that say whoever I endorse is going to win. I don't know if that's true. Historically that's absolutely true. I just don't like to say it because I don't like to brag,' Trump said. 'I've pretty much always known who I was going to endorse. I just thought this was a good time,' Trump told reporters earlier Tuesday as he gave them an outdoor tour of the White House ballroom construction site.
Democrats neatly wrapped up their primary in early March. The more moderate state House Representative James Talarico bested Representative Jasmine Crockett, who jumped into the Senate race after the GOP's redistricting efforts made her reelection a challenge. Crockett produced national headlines for getting into a squabble with now former GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, criticizing her 'bleach blonde, bad built, butch body.' But those viral moments didn't do enough to get Crockett across the line, with many Texas Democrats believing that Talarico, a white man, was more electable statewide.
Supporters of the incumbent Cornyn, who was first elected in 2002, believed he was the more electable Republican, as Paxton has a history of scandals, including two alleged affairs. But the most recent poll, conducted by Texas Southern University, showed Cornyn and Paxton running about evenly against Talarico, with Cornyn only one point ahead - 45 percent to 44 percent - well within the survey's plus or minus 2.8 percent margin of error. The poll found Talarico and Paxton tied at 45 percent support.
The survey found that Paxton moving on to the general election would move about 2 percent of Cornyn's voters to Talarico's column, a trend that doesn't happen if Cornyn becomes the Republican nominee. Texas Democrats have long wanted to give Republicans a run for their money in the deep red state. They last came close to flipping a Senate seat in 2018, when former Representative Beto O'Rourke took on GOP Senator Ted Cruz. O'Rourke ended up losing to Cruz by 2.6 percent.
