{"id":19585,"date":"2026-03-04T13:01:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-democrats-get-their-texas-dream-scenario\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T13:01:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:01:57","slug":"capitol-agenda-democrats-get-their-texas-dream-scenario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-democrats-get-their-texas-dream-scenario\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Democrats get their Texas dream scenario"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Maybe, just maybe, this is the year Texas really matters.<\/p>\n

While the outcome wasn\u2019t shocking, the confirmation of a May 26 runoff between Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and state Attorney General Ken Paxton confirmed the fears of many Republicans who now face a likely scorched-earth campaign that could seriously hobble the victor in November\u2019s general election and drain resources from tough races in places like North Carolina and Maine.<\/p>\n

Democrats, meanwhile, are seeing their dream scenario play out: State Rep. James Talarico has defeated<\/a> Rep. Jasmine Crockett outright in the Democratic primary, giving the candidate many strategists see as the party’s best chance to finally turn the Lone Star State blue a clear path to November.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s results showed some surprising strength<\/a> for Cornyn after he trailed Paxton, a MAGA firebrand, in most polls. The veteran senator is about a point ahead of the AG in the latest returns. <\/p>\n

But for national Republicans, keeping Cornyn afloat will be expensive and will risk damaging Paxton if he ends up being their nominee. In the absence of a Trump endorsement for any candidate, Cornyn and his allies have already spent more than $100 million to take out Paxton.<\/p>\n

The four-term Cornyn launched into the runoff Tuesday night by framing Paxton as an existential threat to the party \u2014 \u201cdead weight\u201d that could cost Republicans control of Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s agenda hangs in the balance,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m proud to have supported President Trump and worked with him to help him achieve his goals in the Congress. If he\u2019s nominated, there\u2019s a high risk that Paxton would lose the Senate seat, taking five congressional seats down with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paxton reacted with a taunt over Cornyn\u2019s big-budget failure to avoid the runoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe proved something they\u2019ll never understand in Washington,\u201d he said, according to The Texas Tribune<\/a>. \u201cTexas is not for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornyn-Paxton wasn\u2019t the only high-stakes drama in the Lone Star State. A quick round-up of the latest results from other races:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Embattled GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales was forced into a runoff against gun influencer Brandon Herrera.<\/p>\n

\u2014 State Rep. Steve Toth ousted GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw from the seat he\u2019s held for four terms.<\/p>\n

\u2014 GOP Rep. Chip Roy is heading into a runoff with state Sen. Mayes Middleton for attorney general.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rep. Christian Menefee is less than 2,000 votes ahead in his uncalled race against Rep. Al Green, who has served in Congress for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Former Rep. Colin Allred is more than 10 point ahead against incumbent Democrat Julie Johnson in another uncalled Dallas-area race.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Notable hearings:<\/b> The House Oversight Committee will hear testimony at 9 a.m. from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison on the misuse of government funds. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is back for a second day in a row of congressional hearings, this time in front of the House Judiciary Committee at 10 a.m. And expect fireworks when IRS CEO Frank Bisignano testifies before the House Ways and Means panel at 10 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Senate\u2019s decision day on Iran: <\/b>A bipartisan resolution to rein in Trump\u2019s Iran war is expected to fail in the Senate Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

But beneath the surface, support for the ongoing strikes is looking less than robust. Many Republican lawmakers are harboring private misgivings<\/u><\/a> about the risks to American troops, global stability and their own political fortunes if the military campaign drags on.<\/p>\n

Liz Crampton, Hailey Fuchs, Brian Faler and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe, just maybe, this is the year Texas really matters. While the outcome wasn\u2019t shocking, the confirmation of a May 26 runoff between Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and state Attorney General Ken Paxton confirmed the fears of many Republicans who now face a likely scorched-earth campaign that could seriously hobble the victor in November\u2019s general […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}