Last night Texas Republicans chose their candidate for the United States Senate. They looked at a man who was impeached by his own party, who faces active criminal charges, whose wife of thirty years filed for divorce on biblical grounds, and they said — that’s our guy.
Ken Paxton beat four-term incumbent Senator John Cornyn by 63 points. It wasn’t close.
Let’s be clear about what Cornyn’s crime was. He voted with Donald Trump 99% of the time. Ninety-nine percent. But after a gunman walked into an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and murdered nineteen children and two teachers, Cornyn worked with Democrats on a bipartisan gun safety bill. Not a ban. Not confiscation. A modest, limited measure that cleared the Senate with 65 votes.
That was enough. Texas Republicans decided a senator who tried to protect children from gun violence was more offensive than a man credibly accused of bribery, abuse of office, and securities fraud.
Trump endorsed Paxton a week before the election and called him a true MAGA Warrior. The race was over the moment he did. A hundred million dollars spent. A four-term senator with a lifetime of conservative credentials — gone, because he once put dead children ahead of party loyalty.
Paxton will now face Democrat James Talarico in November. Democrats believe — for the first time in a generation — that Texas is winnable. If last night proved anything it is that the Republican Party in Texas has drifted so far from anything resembling principle that the center may finally be up for grabs.
Impeached. Criminally charged. Divorced on biblical grounds. Headed to the United States Senate. Only in MAGA America.