commentary Democrat James Talarico may win — and the president weakened his hold over the GOP Published May 27, 2026 6:45AM (EDT) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated Sen. John Cornyn in the state's Republican Senate primary (Stewart F. House/Getty Images)) John Cornyn probably never had a chance to keep his seat. The senior Republican senator from Texas has repugnant, far-right politics. He even used the confirmation hearing for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to float legal theories for ending same-sex marriage. But he is mild-mannered — a flaw in today’s GOP — and he doesn’t have a history of flashy corruption scandals and adultery , unlike Ken Paxton, the state attorney general who handily defeated him in the Republican primary on Tuesday night. Paxton is just a bigger scoundrel than Cornyn, so of course he drew a last-minute endorsement from Donald Trump , who took credit for Paxton’s victory, gloating on Truth Social with a meme declaring “Ken Paxton wins!…