A new report has revealed that signs emerging on the political scene indicate that President Donald Trump and specific key Republican organizations could be ditching any possibility of supporting incumbent Texas Sen. John Cornyn, whom many within the MAGA movement consider to be a Republican In Name Only (RINO), and preparing to embrace his competition, Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Evidence supporting this theory includes a lack of significant spending by the Cornyn campaign and the lack of cash flow coming from the National Republican Senatorial Committee and One Nation, the Senate Leadership Fund-aligned nonprofit organization. Some are saying this is Washington accepting and embracing Paxton facing off against Texas Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in the general election.
Steve Bannon, host of the “War Room” podcast and former advisor to President Trump during his first term, spoke with Politico about the race, saying, “The grassroots stood in the breach and said a resounding ‘NO’ to Cornyn.” He went on to add, “Polling and spending indicates that the Republican DC establishment reluctantly concurs. This could be the victory that empowers MAGA through the midterms.”
But that doesn’t mean that Paxton has decided to take it easy and sit back on his laurels. The Texas Republican recently made a trip to Mar-a-Lago for a Palm Beach County GOP dinner and was seen having a conversation with the president, according to Politico’s report. A source close to the situation said that the pair were spotted on the patio, chatting about the upcoming runoff.
Another witness to the discussion said, “It was a positive meeting.” A spokesperson for Paxton declined to provide any details about what Paxton and Trump talked about. The report noted this is a sign of a fierce effort by Paxton to prevent Trump from handing his endorsement over to Cornyn, which many conservatives feel would be a betrayal of MAGA.
Paxton is scheduled as a speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference, also known as CPAC, where he will headline the Ronald Reagan dinner. Cornyn, on the other hand, is not planning to attend the event, a strange step for someone in a close race for a Senate seat. “It’s an opportunity to be able to, you know, share your vision and basically sell yourself to the crowd, to the Texas crowd,” CPAC host and organizer Mercedes Schlapp said.
“So Ken Paxton agreed to come, and he has a very high CPAC rating. And you know, we’ve invited Cornyn, and so we are still open. The invitation is still open for John Cornyn to come,” Schlapp added. Even when it looked likely that Trump was going to give Cornyn his endorsement, those in the MAGA movement continued to press for the president to back Paxton.
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“The Cornyn endorsement looks dead, but it’s Trump, so it’s never certain,” a person close to the White House went on to say about Trump picking the incumbent senator for his endorsement. “Cornyn sealed his fate by carrying Mitch [McConnell]’s water on that ridiculous gun grabbing bill. No one thought he would be dumb enough to run for reelection after that but here we are.”
Watch CPAC endorse Paxton here: