President Donald Trump on Thursday blamed Sen. John Cornyn and Republican strategist Karl Rove in advance for a possible Republican loss in the Texas Senate race, where Attorney General Ken Paxton faces Democrat James Talarico.
"If Ken Paxton loses, it will be because of WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Political Hacks like John Cornyn and Karl Rove, who have ineffectively opposed me for my entire political career."
With Trump's endorsement, Paxton ousted Cornyn, a four-term incumbent, in a May primary runoff, winning 63% to 36%. Rove said: "If John Cornyn were the nominee, this race would be over."
The race has become one of the most competitive of the midterm cycle. Texas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988 and more than $500 million in ad spending has already poured into the contest, according to AdImpact.
Trump's post is part warning shot, part rallying cry. The voters of Texas already made their choice in the primary — they chose Paxton, decisively — and the president is telling the party's establishment, in the bluntest possible terms, to respect it. Cornyn has not campaigned alongside the man who beat him; Rove has spent months talking down Paxton's chances. Now both have been put on notice: if the seat falls, the blame lands on the people who refused to unite.
The history between these men is the story. Cornyn, a four-term incumbent, lost his seat in a May runoff after Trump endorsed Paxton — 63% to 36%, a rout, not a squeaker. Since then Cornyn has criticized the administration and kept his distance from the nominee who beat him.
Rove's warning — "If John Cornyn were the nominee, this race would be over" — is the establishment's case in one sentence: Paxton is beatable, and the primary made him the nominee anyway. Trump's answer is the voters' case: they chose, and the party's job now is to win with the choice they made.
More than $500 million in ad spending has already poured into the contest, per AdImpact. Texas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988. Both of those facts will be tested on Nov. 3 — along with the question of whether a party at war with itself can hold its reddest firewall.
Whether Cornyn and Rove answer the call may decide more than one Senate seat. Texas is the firewall of the Republican Senate majority, and Nov. 3 will show whether the party fights as one — or fractures in public.
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