Trump will regret endorsing Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate primary

Trump will regret endorsing Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate primary
Democrat James Talarico may win — and the president weakened his hold over the GOP

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published May 27, 2026 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) John Cornyn probably never had a chance to keep his seat. The senior Republican senator from Texas has repugnant, far-right politics. He even used the confirmation hearing for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to float legal theories for ending same-sex marriage. But he is mild-mannered — a flaw in today’s GOP — and he doesn’t have a history of flashy corruption scandals and adultery, unlike Ken Paxton, the state attorney general who handily defeated him in the Republican primary on Tuesday night.

Paxton is just a bigger scoundrel than Cornyn, so of course he drew a last-minute endorsement from Donald Trump, who took credit for Paxton’s victory, gloating on Truth Social with a meme declaring “Ken Paxton wins! Endorsed by Trump!” over a photo of the president glowering in a face he believes looks “tough.”

But the president will likely come to rue the day he stuck his nose into this particular race. Or at least he would regret it, if he were capable of self-reflection. Polls show that the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico, is more likely to beat Paxton than Cornyn in November’s general election. But even if that doesn’t happen, Trump was unwise to alienate Senate Republicans, who largely backed Cornyn, at a time when his political power is starting to wane.

....(snip)....

Cornyn now joins a group of sitting Republican senators dubbed the “YOLO caucus,” because they are leaving at the end of this year and so they no longer have to worry about angering Trump. Sen. Bill Cassidy lost his primary race in Louisiana earlier this month after Trump deemed him “disloyal” for his vote to impeach after the Jan. 6 insurrection. Like Cornyn, Cassidy has been a rubber stamp for Trump’s agenda this term, even providing the decisive vote in favor of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but the famously narcissistic president didn’t care. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who protected Trump through two impeachment trials, is retiring as Kentucky’s senior senator at 84 after many high-profile conflicts with the president over some of his dumber political decisions. North Carolina’s Thom Tillis is — by Senate standards anyway — a spry 65, but he is retiring after being abused by Trump for years for occasional votes against his agenda. ....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/05/27/trump-will-regret-endorsing-ken-paxton-in-the-texas-senate-primary/