The Scoop
A super PAC supporting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is buying new ads in the Palm Beach media market, trying again to get President Donald Trump’s attention at Mar-a-Lago while his endorsement in the state’s Senate race remains unsettled.
The Lone Star Liberty PAC’s four-figure weekend spending Saturday and Sunday in West Palm Beach, is the second time the PAC has bought TV time specifically to get a message to Trump. Last week it condemned Paxton’s runoff opponent, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, for voting to confirm law enforcement officials who went on to investigate Trump.
Its newest ad claims that Cornyn only endorsed Trump-backed legislation requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration because the incumbent was losing to Paxton in polls ahead of their May runoff. The spot will air on Fox News, Golf Channel, TBS, TNT, and TRU, with a specific buy on Fox News Sunday on broadcast — prime Trump viewing time.
“Senator Cornyn – this is not him,” Texas Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett says in the ad — a clip of a Democrat Trump has personally ridiculed to drive the point home.
“John Cornyn has proven himself to be a weak, ineffective RINO who only pretends to care about what Republican voters want during primary season,” said Lone Star Liberty PAC spokesman Gregg Keller.
People who want to get Trump’s attention have been buying ads in West Palm Beach for years. Backers of Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas — who infuriated Senate Republicans by running against Cornyn and Paxton in this month’s primary — tried that to no avail.
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The View From Cornyn’s campaign
Cornyn was an original sponsor of the voter ID bill but had been reluctant to end or overhaul the filibuster to get it past Democratic opposition — a Trump demand that Paxton has long favored. After the March 3 primary, Cornyn announced that he now supported changing the filibuster, because Democrats would end the 60-vote threshold someday anyway.
“Ken Paxton has lied to his staff, taxpayers, his church, and his wife, so it’s no surprise he’s lying to President Trump with this ad,” said Cornyn campaign strategist Matt Mackowiak. (Democratic nominee James Talarico’s Senate campaign declined to comment.)
