Republicans ‘freak out’ on Capitol Hill after watching Cornyn's primary
Republican lawmakers were anxious on Wednesday after President Donald Trump made it clear that he plans to wade into the Texas primary runoff.
After Trump pressured Texas to redistrict to try to maintain its Republican majority in Congress, the Lone Star state could see a red Senate seat flip to blue in the midterms — a growing concern among the GOP. Then, by Wednesday, Trump threatened to force one of the candidates to drop out before the runoff in May between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. He claimed it was a condition for when he issue an endorsement. The move would take the choice away from GOP voters in Texas, which has made some Republican lawmakers nervous.
Marianna Sotomayor, Congressional reporter at The Washington Post, described the situation among Republicans in Washington, D.C., during a panel with CNN anchor Kasie Hunt.
"Well, they have been worried for some time, and I think they really did think that Jasmine Crockett would probably win," Sotomayor said. "And if that were the scenario, they would be like, OK great, Texas is done. I don't care if it's Paxton, I don't care if it's Cornyn, Republicans will win. As of last night, there were freak-outs. That's what I was hearing from some Republicans on the Hill."
Republican strategists indicated that Trump was likely to endorse Cornyn, according to a Wednesday report from The Atlantic.
"And, you know, leadership was pretty clear," Sotomayor added. "Like, 'Hey, we need Cornyn to be the guy. We need Trump to put his finger on the scale.' And he's teased that he might do that." And the reason why is because, really, Cornyn can beat [James] Talarico. I think there's a lot of Democrats, if you ask them, they're very excited, as you said, and as a political observer, also very excited to just see a horse race in Texas."