Say Goodbye to Big John? Not So Fast.

 

     John Cornyn seems to have aged a decade just in the last month.

     In the 11th hour of the Texas Senate Republican primary, Trump threw his support behind Cornyn's primary opponent, the rabidly insane and spectacularly corrupt Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General. It wasn't as if Cornyn wasn't given ample warning. People must have been whispering in his ear these past several weeks that Trump would do this. And yet, Cornyn was still caught unawares, like a dog thinking it's going for a nice car ride only to find out they're being taken to the vet.

      In a way, one almost has to feel sorry for Cornyn. He was a dull but loyal foot soldier for Trump since his first stolen term going back to when he was the majority whip. He voted for Trump's insane demands nearly every time. He's spent three terms in the US Senate without having a single major piece of legislation with his name on it. John Cornyn was the very delineation of the typical spineless Republican who's utterly incapable of upsetting or bucking party leadership and that especially applies where Trump is concerned.

     But, as stupid as he is, Trump is still able to read poll numbers. Proving the inevitable fallibility of pollsters, and Trump's willingness to accept the approval ratings of others not named Donald Trump, most if not all the polls leading to tonight's GOP primary election showed Paxton leading Cornyn.

     Then a funny thing happened on the way to the polls: Cornyn beat Paxton tonight by 1.2%, thereby advancing to the runoff election since neither hit the 50% threshold to avoid a runoff. Trump threw Cornyn to the wolves simply because Paxton was seemingly ahead and, as we all know, Trump hates being associated with "losers" and doesn't want that loser ambience to rub off on him.

     That's not to say Cornyn is a lock to win the runoff election on May 26th. After all, his margin of victory tonight was just over one percent. But it certainly puts a ding in the MSM's mantra that Trump continues to exert a stranglehold on the GOP. Like Alabama voters, Texas voters are stubbornly independent and don't like being told what to do and for whom to vote.

     John Cornyn may be an empty suit but he's still popular with Republican Texas voters. But in terms of popularity, here are some numbers that are making Texas Republicans shit boulder-sized cold bricks:

 

     Cornyn, at this point in time, had received 907,000+ votes tonight. Not bad, right? But look at how well the top two Democrats did earlier this year in the Democratic primary:

     

     The Democratic nominee, James Talarico, easily avoided a runoff election by securing 52.4% of the vote. He got over 300,000 more votes than Cornyn or Paxton. Even Jasmine Crockett, finishing a relatively distant second place, got 1,068,387 votes, still far more than either Republican. Does that mean Talarico is a shoe-in? Not necessarily. Voter turnout is historically lower for primary elections than in general elections. But the numbers don't lie.

     Democratic voter engagement in the Democratic primary was considerably higher than on the Republican side tonight. Much higher.

     Ladies and germs, Texas is in play for the first time in decades.