Republicans are still waiting on President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the Texas Senate race. And every week without him settling it means more costly spending in the GOP runoff battle between Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
When Trump said he would weigh in “soon,” Republicans hoped it meant he’d have backed Cornyn by now. That hasn’t happened, and attacks continue to fly, potentially weakening the eventual GOP nominee.
“We could have tens of millions of dollars being spent in a runoff in Texas and then have the added risk of whatever gets said as fodder for the Democrat marketing department,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told Semafor. “Primaries get ugly. Runoffs get even uglier.”
He and other Republicans warned a Paxton victory would require so much general election money it could deprive candidates in other battlegrounds this fall.