The MAGA crowd is not too happy about President Donald Trump’s rumored endorsement pick for the competitive GOP Senate primary in Texas.
After a report in The Atlantic predicted Trump, 79, would endorse the incumbent senator, John Cornyn, in the state’s Republican-primary runoff match against the scandal-ridden Attorney General Ken Paxton, an outpouring of upset MAGA names made their voices heard.
Cornyn, 74, has been consistently backed by the Republican Senate campaign arm in Washington. He has also personally attacked Paxton, 63, over his alleged adulterous past. Paxton, a Trump ally, shares four children with his wife, Angela, who filed for divorce last summer.
Neither Republican scored the necessary 50 percent of the vote to win outright. GOP candidates and outside groups have already spent $100 million in the heated race, according to tracking by Ad Impact.
The warring parties, Ken Paxton (L) and John Cornyn, are fighting it out to be the Republican choice to run in Texas. Getty Images
Far-right influencer Laura Loomer made her choice for the GOP nominee clear in a post on X on Wednesday.
“JUST IN: President Trump says he will soon endorse in the Texas Senate GOP race, & whoever he doesn’t endorse must drop out,” Loomer, 32, wrote. “Hopefully he endorses @KenPaxtonTX, because @JohnCornyn has a long record of being anti-Trump, pro-Islam, weak on illegal immigration, and anti 2A.”
Loomer said Cornyn was “anti-Trump” and “weak on illegal immigration.” Laura Loomer/X
Sara Gonzales, a host on the right-wing media network Blaze TV, also pleaded for the president to reconsider his rumored pick.
“Mr. President @realDonaldTrump,” Gonzales wrote in a post on X. “I am one of your biggest supporters and I am urging you as someone who is in the Texas grassroots: do NOT endorse Cornyn. It will be one of your biggest mistakes.”
“The majority of Texas voters voted AGAINST Cornyn last night,” she added. “We don’t want him!”
Gonzales said if Trump declined to endorse Paxton it would be one of his “biggest mistakes.” Sara Gonzales/X
Conservative radio host Jesse Kelly called Cornyn, who has held his Texas Senate seat since 2002, a “swamp rat,” and said if Trump endorses him, it would be a “total scumbag move.”
Republican political commentator Sarah Fields said that “most of Trump’s endorsements in Texas races have sucked,” and urged the president to endorse Paxton. She added that she doesn’t anticipate Cornyn conceding the race because he’s “too idiotic and stubborn.”
Kelly called Cornyn a “swamp rat” who has betrayed the president. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Nick Sortor, a conservative influencer and self-styled citizen journalist, said on X that, “IT MUST BE KEN PAXTON, @POTUS!”
“RINO Cornyn ONLY pretends to support you during election years,” he added. “Don’t fall for it!”
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a MAGA mouthpiece turned rebel, diverged from the crowd, saying Trump’s command for whoever he doesn’t endorse to concede is “wrong.”
“Stealing people’s opportunity to elect their leaders by force will definitely piss off voters,” Greene said. Marjorie Taylor Greene/X
“Trump now says he is going to endorse either Cornyn or Paxton and demands that whoever does not get his endorsement must drop out of the runoff,” Greene wrote in a lengthy X post. “This is wrong and the people of Texas should be able to vote for WHOEVER THEY WANT!!! NOT the candidate Trump demands.”
“People are furious over this and if Trump does this, it could actually be the real reason Texas Senate seat flips blue,” Greene, 51, continued.
Trump held off on endorsing a candidate in the heated Texas primary, which led to a runoff scheduled for May 26. The Senate primary was the costliest in history, as Republicans and outside groups funneled over $100 million into the race.
The MAGA crowd called for Paxton as the more Trump-aligned choice for the Texas Senate. kenpaxton.com/
Neither Cornyn nor the challenger, Paxton, reached the 50 percent threshold to avoid a runoff.
The president posted on Truth Social on Wednesday, signaling his concern over the tight Texas race.
President Trump freaks out and vows to endorse in the race in an effort to avoid a nasty and expensive Texas Republican Senate runoff after Democrats saw record turnout in their own Senate primary. Truth Social
“The Republican Primary Race for the United States Senate in the Great State of Texas, a State I LOVE and won 3 times in Record Numbers (the HIGHEST vote ever recorded, by far!!!), cannot, for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer. IT MUST STOP NOW!” Trump wrote.
The Daily Beast contacted the White House for comment.
