NBC News projects that Paxton, who received a late endorsement from Trump, will advance to the general election to face Democrat James Talarico.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has defeated Sen. John Cornyn for the Republican Senate nomination, NBC News projects, the latest challenger backed by Donald Trump to unseat an incumbent.
Paxton will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in a November race that could become key to the fight for the Senate majority.
Trump endorsed Paxton last week, giving him a last-minute boost in his bid to oust Cornyn, who has been in the Senate since 2003. Cornyn and Paxton faced off Tuesday in a head-to-head runoff after no candidate won more than 50% of the vote in the initial multicandidate March primary.
Its a bit of an aside but watching Jasmine Crockett go on to endorse Corey Bell, AIPAC super-fan, in the Bush/ Bell primary (MO-01), and also watching her revel in the Hassan supoena; it tells me DNC voters in Texas made the right choice regarding Talarico.
Democratic turn out in primaries has been way up with more informed electorates over all, generally but not always, picking better candidates. RNC turn out is down, with only the core cult showing up, so maybe this is an expected result. Rather than looking to reform the RNC, former Trump voters are abandoning electoral politics for the time being?
It makes me wonder how viable these low-energy Trump picks will be in a general. Trumps ability to drive turn out has never translated to other candidates, and they’ve never been weaker than they are now. I don’t think Dem’s in Texas could as for a better shot.