{"id":19615,"date":"2026-03-04T23:46:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/republicans-hold-their-breath-and-hope-for-a-quick-trump-endorsement-in-texas\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T23:46:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:46:44","slug":"republicans-hold-their-breath-and-hope-for-a-quick-trump-endorsement-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/republicans-hold-their-breath-and-hope-for-a-quick-trump-endorsement-in-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans hold their breath and hope for a quick Trump endorsement in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump is signaling he will soon endorse someone in the Texas primary. Key Republican players are scrambling to make the case for incumbent John Cornyn \u2014 and hoping Trump acts fast.<\/p>\n

“I hope it’s going to be soon,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Wednesday, just hours after making his latest plea on Cornyn\u2019s behalf to the president.<\/p>\n

At stake is $100 million or more in Republican donor money that many in D.C. party circles believe could be burned<\/a> in the 12-week runoff showdown with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who finished closely behind Cornyn<\/a> in Tuesday\u2019s GOP primary.<\/p>\n

Beyond the money that stands to be incinerated, party operatives fear the scorched-earth campaign will give a further leg up to Democratic candidate James Talarico, the state lawmaker who won his party\u2019s primary outright Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In a lengthy Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump spelled out that he was mindful of a costly internecine fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will be making my Endorsement soon,\u201d he wrote<\/a>, as he called on the candidate he doesn\u2019t endorse to \u201cDROP OUT OF THE RACE,\u201d stressing that Republicans must \u201cTOTALLY FOCUS\u201d on beating the \u201cRadical Left Opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornyn\u2019s Senate colleagues delivered a succession of public and private entreaties to the president throughout the day Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) said in an exclusive interview for Blue Light News\u2019s \u201cThe Conversation\u201d that Cornyn was “without a doubt the candidate to win in November.\u201d The episode is set for publication Friday.<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing more powerful than President Trump’s endorsement,” Britt added, speaking before she traveled to the White House for a roundtable event with Trump.<\/p>\n

Multiple Republicans delivered a similar message directly to Trump, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private conversations \u2014 sharing their concerns that a Senate seat that has been in GOP hands since 1961 could be at risk of flipping in November if the scandal-dogged Paxton is the top of the ticket.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans were told during their closed-door lunch Wednesday that Trump will soon endorse in the race, two attendees said, but not whom the president will back.<\/p>\n

But there was a palpable sense of hope among some of Cornyn\u2019s allies Wednesday, who believe that things are aligning in the incumbent\u2019s favor<\/a> as he appears on track to win a plurality in Tuesday\u2019s voting.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday evening Cornyn led Paxton by about 25,000 votes with more than 95 percent of ballots counted, according to the Associated Press<\/a>. That represented an overperformance, some Cornyn allies argued, given that several pre-election polls had him soundly trailing Paxton.<\/p>\n

A Cornyn campaign aide said there is \u201cnew momentum\u201d and \u201cnew support coming\u201d after Tuesday\u2019s results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe case got stronger because of last night \u2014 that’s undeniable,\u201d the aide said about Trump endorsing Cornyn. \u201cThere certainly are lots of conversations happening, lots of people who are seeing the bigger picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arriving in the Senate Wednesday evening, Cornyn declined to answer questions about the possibility of an endorsement \u2014 or anything else \u2014 as his colleagues warmly welcomed him back to Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig John,\u201d said No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Barrasso of Wyoming, greeting Cornyn as he rushed into the Capitol after a flight from Texas.<\/p>\n

Several former Trump campaign aides are now associated with Cornyn\u2019s campaign and are thought to be lobbying on his behalf. But Trump has long been personally fond of Paxton<\/a>, a MAGA firebrand who eagerly joined his effort to overturn the 2020 presidential contest that elected Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

A Republican close to the Paxton campaign, granted anonymity to speak candidly before Trump sent his Truth Social message, said Trump \u201cknows that the base despises Cornyn\u201d and would not risk alienating them by endorsing the sitting senator.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows Cornyn is a squish and RINO,\u201d he said. \u201cBut he’s got to make a pragmatic decision. It just kind of depends on what folks are telling him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopes for a quick endorsement for Cornyn<\/a> could be on hold as the final votes are counted and his lead over Paxton is confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny president would prefer to be positioned with the winning campaign,\u201d said one GOP donor, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the endorsement dynamics.<\/p>\n

The White House did not respond to requests for comment on when the president will endorse and which candidate.<\/p>\n

Talarico clinching the nomination while two well-financed Republicans beat each other up is exactly the scenario Washington Republicans were hoping to avoid ahead of Tuesday\u2019s election. Internal polling released earlier this month by the Senate GOP\u2019s campaign arm showed Paxton would lose the general election to Talarico by 3 points while Cornyn could beat him by 3 points.<\/p>\n

The Republican close to the Paxton campaign said the attorney general is well positioned to win a runoff given that the primary electorate tends to be more conservative \u2014 and that Talarico is more beatable than Washington Republicans believe, given his past comments on transgender rights and his liberal view of the Bible. The person said Paxton\u2019s data modeling showed a Cornyn plurality \u201cwas a possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it\u2019s fair to say he was a little bit stronger than expected, but again it wasn\u2019t too far up from our data,\u201d the person said.<\/p>\n

Still, the strong showing gave Cornyn\u2019s colleagues a prime opportunity to argue that it was time to bring the rivalry to an end.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Cornyn is the best bet to win the November election,\u201d said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close Trump ally known to have the president\u2019s ear.<\/p>\n

Barrasso added that he, too, would encourage Trump to back his Texas colleague, adding that it\u2019s \u201ccritically important for John Cornyn to be the nominee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to hold that seat which means we need to nominate someone who is going to win in November,\u201d Barrasso added. \u201cThe person that will win in November is John Cornyn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dasha Burns and Adam Wren contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump is signaling he will soon endorse someone in the Texas primary. Key Republican players are scrambling to make the case for incumbent John Cornyn \u2014 and hoping Trump acts fast. “I hope it’s going to be soon,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Wednesday, just hours after making his latest plea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19615","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=19615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}