It\u2019s rare for President Donald Trump to sit out a political horse race. But his lack of an endorsement so far in the bitter Republican Senate primary in Texas has created ripples from the Lone Star State all the way up to Washington.<\/p>\n
Polls have shown<\/a> longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn trailing state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the March 3 primary, which also includes Houston-area Rep. Wesley Hunt. Despite pushes from Republican leadership and their fundraising arms to back Cornyn, Trump has resisted doing so with early voting already underway.<\/p>\n Cornyn\u2019s opponents have welcomed the decision, but it\u2019s created frustration back in D.C. for the senator\u2019s supporters, who are now also staring down a May runoff election, with none of the candidates likely to get more than 50 percent of the vote next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n Senate GOP leadership and its campaign arms have long viewed Cornyn as the best candidate to win in a general election against either Rep. Jasmine Crockett or state Rep. James Talarico, who are locked in a fierce battle for the Democratic nomination. Republicans have already dumped tens of millions into keeping Cornyn afloat in the primary, and a feisty runoff would burn more cash that would be better spent outside Texas to help Republicans keep control of the Senate.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve all supported me. They\u2019re all good, and you\u2019re supposed to pick one, so we\u2019ll see what happens. But I support all three,\u201d Trump said last week<\/a> of Paxton, Cornyn and Hunt.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University, said that with the three candidates \u201cwithin relative striking distance of each other, a Trump endorsement would have, if not, sealed the deal, gone a long way towards it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut the way I read it, the person who really needs the Trump endorsement is John Cornyn in particular,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n His toughest fight<\/p>\n Cornyn has been a fixture in Texas Republican politics for decades. He served on the Texas Supreme Court and as state attorney general, before his election to the Senate in 2002. He\u2019s been comfortably reelected since, including by 10 points in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, recent surveys have found Cornyn struggling against Paxton, and Hunt\u2019s entry into the race has all but ensured the primary is heading toward a May 26 runoff.\u00a0<\/p>\n Senate GOP leadership and the fundraising arms have made several requests to Trump for a Cornyn endorsement, according to several people familiar with the outreach.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cornyn has maintained support from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the Senate Leadership Fund super PAC and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which traditionally backs incumbents. He\u2019s built deep relationships throughout the top ranks in the Senate, having served as the chamber\u2019s No. 2 GOP leader and as NRSC chairman.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m supporting and have endorsed and am doing everything I can to help Sen. John Cornyn,\u201d Thune said<\/a> at a news conference at the Capitol this month. \u201cHe\u2019s a very effective conservative senator for the state of Texas, and does a lot of good things for our country on so many issues.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite those conservative bona fides, Cornyn has at times crossed party lines before to negotiate on issues such as immigration, criminal justice and gun policy. For example, he helped pass a gun safety bill in 2022\u00a0 after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 students and two teachers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cornyn has also had a hot-and-cold relationship with Trump, including over the senator pushing back against the president\u2019s false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen.<\/p>\n Finding the MAGA lane<\/p>\n Now, with two MAGA-friendly Republicans facing Cornyn, the Senate primary has rocketed to become the second-most expensive on record, with total ad spending surpassing $98 million, according<\/a> to AdImpact.<\/p>\n But the money Cornyn-aligned groups are spending on his behalf risks taking away from competitive matchups in states such as Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason Republicans in Washington are spending big to boost Cornyn: Paxton, who has vowed to be a disruptor and take on the \u201cD.C. establishment,\u201d has been embroiled in a series of political and personal controversies. Those include his wife divorcing him on \u201cbiblical grounds,\u201d being impeached \u2014 but later acquitted \u2014 by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature over misconduct, bribery and corruption charges; and being investigated by the Texas State Bar over his role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n Internal leadership polling has shown Crockett and Talarico competitive in a general election against Paxton \u2014 in a state where Democrats haven\u2019t won a Senate election in nearly 40 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n