With the Texas Republican Senate primary headed to a runoff between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, President Donald Trump's advisers are pushing him heavily to endorse Cornyn and pressure Paxton to drop out of the race, avoiding another several weeks of expensive, messy, and damaging fighting as Democrats get a head start with their own nominee.
But Paxton has some bad news for Trump: he's not going anywhere.
The MAGA firebrand was asked about the issue on the right-wing Real America's Voice network, with one host asking him, "President Trump said he’s going to make an endorsement, whoever he doesn’t endorse should drop out. I have a funny feeling you don’t drop out under any circumstance."
“No, I’m staying in this race," Paxton replied. "I owe it to the people of Texas.”
Cornyn and Paxton have spent the last several months trading increasingly vicious barbs, with Paxton accusing Cornyn of being insufficiently loyal to Trump, and Cornyn slamming Paxton over his marital infidelity and long list of public corruption scandals.
On the Democratic side, state Rep. James Talarico pulled out a victory on Tuesday night, beating Rep. Jasmine Crockett. The two had been in a spirited debate that centered largely on which one had the better strategy to bring the fight to Republicans and flip Texas blue after a three-decade losing streak for Democrats.