It sure didn’t take long for Republicans to hit the panic button over the results of yesterday’s Texas U.S. Senate primary. The minute it became clear that (1) James Talarico would lead an enthused and united Democratic Party into a winnable general-election campaign and (2) incumbent John Cornyn would face a bloody 84-day runoff fight against Ken Paxton that would leave the eventual nominee deeply damaged, the powers that be in the Senate GOP and the national party got down on their knees and began begging Donald Trump to save them. Hardly for the first time, but possibly for the last time, they implored the president to endorse Cornyn, their own candidate. And while there was much talk about Cornyn’s superior electability, it was pretty clearly all about the money. Politico reported:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune urged President Donald Trump on Wednesday to deliver a swift endorsement of Texas Sen. John Cornyn to potentially forestall what is widely expected to be an expensive and nasty primary runoff against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. …“[If] Trump endorses early, it saves everybody a lot of money, and … 10 weeks of a spirited campaign on our side that keeps us from spending time focusing on the Democrats,” Thune said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune urged President Donald Trump on Wednesday to deliver a swift endorsement of Texas Sen. John Cornyn to potentially forestall what is widely expected to be an expensive and nasty primary runoff against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. …

“[If] Trump endorses early, it saves everybody a lot of money, and … 10 weeks of a spirited campaign on our side that keeps us from spending time focusing on the Democrats,” Thune said.

The reality is that national and Texas GOP donors spent an estimated $70 million on Cornyn’s primary campaign — more than ten times the money Paxton had available — but could not lift him to the nomination without a runoff. Yes, Cornyn’s backers are trying to make a big deal out of Cornyn finishing narrowly ahead of his hated rival in the first round, which was marginally surprising until you look at the incumbent’s virtually unopposed late ad blitz. But the fact remains that without a Trump intervention, Paxton would be favored in the runoff, as Punchbowl News observes:

It’s important to remember that the runoff dynamics favor Paxton. The electorate in a runoff is smaller and much more conservative. It’s the hard-core activist types who show up to vote the day after Memorial Day. Cornyn will really need Trump’s endorsement here. Talking about his record in the Senate as a pragmatic dealmaker won’t do Cornyn any good. …But this GOP runoff will also be incredibly expensive. The drawn-out Cornyn-Paxton battle will siphon resources away from Senate battleground states like North Carolina and Michigan.

It’s important to remember that the runoff dynamics favor Paxton. The electorate in a runoff is smaller and much more conservative. It’s the hard-core activist types who show up to vote the day after Memorial Day. Cornyn will really need Trump’s endorsement here. Talking about his record in the Senate as a pragmatic dealmaker won’t do Cornyn any good. …

But this GOP runoff will also be incredibly expensive. The drawn-out Cornyn-Paxton battle will siphon resources away from Senate battleground states like North Carolina and Michigan.

So national Republicans were looking at the nightmare scenario of having to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to croak Paxton in the runoff, but then if they failed, having to raise hundreds of millions more to rehabilitate the MAGA zealot after Team Cornyn spent all that dough labeling him as a home-wrecking crook. Better to spend that money smearing Talarico (an effort that has already begun) than Paxton, and better yet, spend it in other states that Trump didn’t carry by 13 points in 2024.

It now seems that despite being distracted by his war of choice against Iran, Trump has looked down upon his children and had pity. He wrote at Truth Social:

The Republican Primary Race for the United States Senate in the Great State of Texas, a State I LOVE and won 3 times in Record Numbers (the HIGHEST vote ever recorded, by far!!!), cannot, for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer. IT MUST STOP NOW! We have an easy to beat, Radical Left Opponent, and we have to TOTALLY FOCUS on putting him away, quickly and decisively! Both John and Ken ran great races, but not good enough. Now, this one, must be PERFECT! My Endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable! It is such an honor to realize and say that almost everyone I Endorse WINS, and wins by a lot, especially in Texas! I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE! Is that fair? We must win in November!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP

The Republican Primary Race for the United States Senate in the Great State of Texas, a State I LOVE and won 3 times in Record Numbers (the HIGHEST vote ever recorded, by far!!!), cannot, for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer. IT MUST STOP NOW! We have an easy to beat, Radical Left Opponent, and we have to TOTALLY FOCUS on putting him away, quickly and decisively! Both John and Ken ran great races, but not good enough. Now, this one, must be PERFECT! My Endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable! It is such an honor to realize and say that almost everyone I Endorse WINS, and wins by a lot, especially in Texas! I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE! Is that fair? We must win in November!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP

It is being credibly reported that despite the air of mystery Trump has sought to project, he’s likely going to go along with the heavy weight of Republican opinion and finally endorse Cornyn (though The Atlantic warns “the president has not yet made a final decision, however, and is prone to last-minute vacillation”). But he’s already demanding that the loser in the endorsement sweepstakes “immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE,” meaning that he is substituting his judgment from that of the Texas Republican voters whose right to select a Senate nominee would be snatched away by presidential fiat. He’ll let them know “soon.”

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