U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) fell to primary challenger Ken Paxton Tuesday night, ending a more than four-decade political career that started at San Antonio’s now-shuttered Barn Door.
Cornyn’s loss comes as Democrats are again gearing up to spend big in Texas this year.
A Paxton victory makes Texas an even riper target in their eyes — which is why national Republicans broke spending records trying to help Cornyn fend him off.
Last week the GOP watched that money go up in flames as President Donald Trump swooped in to endorse Cornyn’s challenger, who the President said had been the more loyal partner.
Cornyn finished with 36% of the vote, to Paxton’s 64%.
Paxton brings much baggage from his past legal troubles and highly public affair.
He will now face off against state Rep. James Talarico (D-Round Rock), a former teacher on San Antonio’s West Side, who is raising record sums of money for the race in November.
San Antonio roots
Cornyn got his undergraduate degree from Trinity University, then a law degree from St. Mary’s University, and was later recruited to run for a district court judgeship while attending a Super Bowl brunch local with Republicans.
“Somebody said, ‘Well, we’re looking for a candidate, and that guy’s got white hair, he kind of looks like a judge,’” he recalled at The Towers on Park Lane this month. “I was 31 years old.”
Cornyn would go on to win his race for the 37th Judicial District Court in Bexar County in 1985, then serve on the Texas Supreme Court and later as Texas Attorney General.
That’s all before his 24-year career in the U.S. Senate, where he served as majority whip and twice chaired the GOP’s campaign arm.
“I still have white hair, some of it,” Cornyn said earlier this month. “But what a great, great ride, what a great experience.”
Cornyn now joins a long list of fellow Republicans who’ve fallen after disagreements with the president, including U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and a slate of Indiana state lawmakers earlier this month.
On Tuesday, two other San Antonio-area Republicans who’ve been at odds with the president also looked unlikely to hang on in Trump-fueled primary runoffs.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Dripping Springs) lost his bid for the GOP nomination for Attorney General, and state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio) was in a close race with a Trump-backed challenger in Texas’ 35th Congressional District.
All three Republicans put much effort into building GOP power in stubbornly blue Bexar County.
Their losses could leave a bench wiped clean of moderates — at the same time the GOP faces unusually tough November races.
Back on Capitol Hill, Trump critics who’ve lost their primaries are now starting to cause the President headaches.
Cassidy, for example, returned to D.C. after losing his primary and promptly flipped his vote to help Democrats pass a resolution to end Trump’s war in Iran.
Cornyn could soon join their ranks, while he remains a senator until Paxton or Talarico is elected to replace him.
