Donald Trump has officially endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, bucking his party’s mainstream donors and siding with the MAGA favorite in the May 26 Republican runoff.
In a statement roughly the length of a Russian novel, Trump praised Paxton as an “America First Patriot,” a “MAGA Warrior,” and most importantly, “extremely loyal.”
“I know Ken well, have seen him tested at the highest and most difficult levels, and he is a WINNER!” our president wrote.
In his usual meandering way, Trump also mentioned “Radical Left Lunatics,” stock markets, the Space Force, Iran, and somehow all of it tied back into Ken Paxton becoming a senator from Texas.
The bigger takeaway, though, is that Trump kicked incumbent mainstream-as-hell Sen. John Cornyn to the curb, despite Cornyn massively outraising Paxton.
But Trump decided to buck the mainstream Republican money and support Paxton, a man whose picture is next to “messy” in the dictionary.
This is, after all, is the same Ken Paxton who:
- was indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015,
- survived an FBI investigation,
- survived impeachment,
- settled whistleblower lawsuits,
- got sued by the Texas Bar over the 2020 election,
- weathered years of affair allegations,
- endured a very public divorce filed on “biblical grounds,”
- and somehow still emerged as the avatar of the Texas Republican base.
Trump even referenced Paxton having “gone through a lot, in many cases, very unfairly.” Of course.
Cornyn spent years being the traditional Texas Republican establishment guy: business-friendly, conservative, predictable. But in today’s GOP, that’s like saying you’re for universal healthcare and a gun ban.
Paxton, meanwhile, is pure Republican primary catnip: permanently embattled and able to transform every investigation into proof the “deep state” fears him personally.
And now he has Trump’s blessing.
The winner of the Paxton/Cornyn mudfight will go on to face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, who must have a Texas-sized grin on his face, because he now gets a much-easier opponent.
“As I said on primary night, it doesn’t matter who wins this runoff,” said Talarico, who does not mean that. “We already know who we’re running against: the billionaire mega-donors and their corrupt political system.”
