Texas Hold ’Em

John Cornyn’s humiliating 28-point wipeout has Republicans spiraling over donor flight, Senate math, and whether scandal magnet Ken Paxton just handed Democrats their dream matchup.

Given the margin, Trump’s last-minute benediction may not have been the deciding factor—though the Cornyn Republicans, like many close observers of the race, saw the writing on the wall when Trump declined to endorse Cornyn after his initial primary victory, in March. Photo: Eddie Seal/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Abby Livingston

May 27, 2026

By the time Sen. John Cornyn suffered his 28-point runoff rout last night, operatives in both parties had already resigned themselves to the likelihood that Ken Paxton, the Trump-blessed, scandal-pocked Texas attorney general, would be the Republican standard-bearer in the nation’s largest red state this fall. When I caught up with a pro-Cornyn Republican last week, an hour after the president endorsed Paxton, he was already on his second vodka tonic. “I’ve been day-drinking since about 1 p.m.,” he said. “The mood is, ‘Holy shit.’ The F-word has been dropped a dozen times. It’s over.”