President Donald Trump appears to be leaning toward endorsing Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas GOP Senate primary, issuing a stark warning to state Attorney General Ken Paxton in an interview with POLITICO.
The president, in a brief phone conversation Thursday morning, said an endorsement will be “made pretty soon” before addressing Paxton, who recently said he would not drop out of the race even if Trump endorses Cornyn.
“Well, that’s bad for him to say,” Trump said. “That is bad for him. So maybe, maybe that leads me to go the other direction.”
Trump had previously stated he would ask the candidate he does not endorse to step aside.
Senate Republicans have already asked Trump to back Cornyn, who narrowly pulled ahead of Paxton on Tuesday in the first round of the primary. The two now face a heated runoff, which could last for another three months unless one of them ends their campaign.
The battle between Cornyn and Paxton has been expensive and full of personal attacks between the candidates. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has called Paxton a “wife-cheater and fraud.” His ex-wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce “on biblical grounds.”
Both Cornyn and Paxton have lobbied hard for the president’s support.
Trump appeared confident that the Republican candidate could beat state Rep. James Talarico, who outright defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett for the Democratic nomination earlier this week. Trump called Talarico “a terribly weak candidate” who is “more woke than even the very highly untalented Jasmine Crockett.”
“I think he’s going to be much easier than her, because he doesn’t have a real following,” Trump said.
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