Originally published at: Armed With Trump’s Last Minute Endorsement, Paxton Defeats Cornyn in Texas GOP Runoff Primary
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Tuesday in a Republican runoff election for the Texas Senate seat. The Associated Press called the race for Paxton around 9:00 p.m. ET, after Paxton secured 62.6 percent of the vote compared to Cornyn’s 37.4 percent. Paxton received a last-minute endorsement from President…
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“Forget it, Jake, it’s Texas.”
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Has any Republican politician besides Brian Kemp stood up to Trump without losing career?
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To me, I’m glad Paxton won. Yes, he’s absolutely horrific. But in the Senate, he becomes very diluted, having to get his crap through 99 other people, half of which will treat him as $#it on their shoes. He will have no power. And that’s just where he belongs.
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Put this in Where Things
Paxton wins in TX. Dump endorsed last week after late polls showed him ahead. Dump will take credit. He will disavow his fellow scumbag if he loses to Talarico in November.
ETA. At this point, 64% in, it’s almost two to one Paxton. Texas definitely likes its scumbags.
ETA2. There is now another rethug senator who owes him nothing. If not less.
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If the GQP isn’t considered a cult after Massie and Cornyn, I don’t know what is.
These people would follow the First Felon off a cliff and drink whatever he handed them, even if it meant their deaths.
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Primary voters (and especially GQP primary voters) are not the general electorate. If Paxton somehow beats Talarico (and I will concede that it could happen here in Bizzaro-world) in November, then you can say, “Texas definitely likes its scumbags.” For now, this is almost as little news as, “Dog bites man”. We already knew that GQP loyalists love their grifting scumbags. There is really nothing to see here–just move along.
(This goes right along with tonight’s ball game–Reds are leading the Mets 7-2 in the bottom of the ninth. I got home in the bottom of the seventh and my wife was happy as can be. I said, “Call me when they are five up on the Brewers in the late innings.”)
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So the Dems chance of taking the Senate this year just shot way up. I’ll give it about 70-80% the Dems will have a majority in both chambers next January.
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Hopefully RINOs Cornyn (TX) and Cassidy (LA) learnt their lessons and from now to the end of their terms obey the orders of the Dear Leader.
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Like Trump, Paxton is brazenly, openly, and totally corrupt. I’m always amazed how little that seems to concern a large number of Republican voters. (Although I have to point out that barely a million or so Republicans voted in their primary, in a state with around 7 million registered Republicans. That’s a weak 15% turnout in one of the most consequential races for their party.)
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Agree on all points. Hopefully he sticks to his “not running again for TX AG” and loses in the general and we have a democratic TX senator.
But im also concerned that if Paxton loses the general election, he fails upward (as Republicans so often do) to be to become acting US Attorney General.
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I believe water will be an increasingly important political issue. In the western US, groundwater is the biggest discussion, but given that the remarkable river system in the Mississippi river basin (31 states) is running dry, the water discussion will gain importance. 12 of these basin states are in drought and the river in some places runs at levels less than a third of normal. Paxton is a water warrior, fighting the EPA and the feds on water rights and regulation. Importantly, much of the change in the thermohaline cycle that regulates precipitation patterns and the rapid heat and carbon exchange in the top few hundred meters of the ocean reflect human combustion of carbon, long a major part of the Texas economy.
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Trump’s endorsement apparently is all that anyone needs to win in a Republican primary, regardless of character or qualifications. But in the general election, it’s no guarantee. Herschel Walker’s candidacy for Senator from Georgia in 2022 comes to mind.
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Suggested edit:
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X gets the square 
There’s an old Chinese proverb that goes, “To own the libs you must first own yourselves.”
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“Regardless” hell. Lack of character or qualifications is ne plus ultra for trump.
A good example of water fights concerns allocations to New Mexico and Texas, areas with specialized agriculture as chili and pecan farming. A good portion of that water storage is in the Elephant Butte Reservoir, currently at 11% of capacity.
The Texas v. New Mexico docket runs back to 2013.
Yesterday, SCOTUS issued its final decree in the case with New Mexico to forfeit 5.9 billion gallons (roughly 18,200 acre-feet) of groundwater annually to guarantee Texas receives its full share of water. Who says water isn’t political?
Now all that has to happen is that a compromised geophysical-geochemical atmospheric and oceanic system complies with the ruling.
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