Trump-backed candidates won two Texas Republican runoffs, with Attorney General Ken Paxton defeating incumbent Senator John Cornyn and election denier Mayes Middleton defeating Chip Roy to replace Paxton as AG. Paxton’s record includes corruption scandals and extremism, and his election-denying stance aligned with Trump’s endorsement. The other runoff showed Trump’s preference for election deniers even without a direct endorsement. Across the GOP primary field, candidates disliked by Trump have lost, including Thomas Massie, who sought release of the Epstein files. Republicans who show loyalty to Trump’s false election claims gain nomination advantages and electoral success.
"In two runoff primaries in Texas this week, Trump-backed Attorney General Ken Paxton beat incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn to become the Republican candidate for Senate. Cornyn has been a dutiful MAGA servant in the Senate, but Paxton, whose tenure as AG has been marred by corruption scandals and rank extremism, is an election denier, so he got Trump's endorsement and eventually won."
"In the other Republican runoff, election denier Mayes Middleton beat Republican Representative Chip Roy in the race to replace Paxton as AG. Trump didn't endorse in this race, but he once again seemed to favor the election denier over the dutiful MAGA servant. Clearly, the best way into Trump's Republican Party remains falsely claiming Trump won the election he obviously lost."
"Across the primary spectrum, Trump-backed candidates are wiping the floor with Republicans Trump dislikes. GOP Representative Thomas Massie lost his primary last week, and all Massie did was call for the release of the Epstein files. (OK, he also opposed the Iran War.) Massie promptly hightailed it to Costa Rica, where he was spied this week vacationing with Marjorie Taylor Greene, another MAGA Republican who didn't even bother to run in a primary after she also pissed off Trump by calling for the release of the Epstein files."
"I've never seen a president with this kind of control over his party, certainly not one with a 34 percent approval rating. Trump is a stunningly unpopular, lame-duck president (or should be, if the Constitution is to be believed), and yet Republicans who support every one of his awful and unpopular policies are getting thrown out of office for not showing enough loyalty to the Dear Leader."
Read at The Nation
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