President Donald Trump promised his endorsement was forthcoming in the GOP Texas Senate runoff and said he wanted whoever he didn’t pick to drop out. But now — preoccupied with the Iran war and a doomed voting bill — he’s missed a critical deadline.
The decision hasn’t been on the president’s mind for days, White House officials told CNN Tuesday afternoon, noting that he was preoccupied by the war with Iran. Now, the deadline for either candidate to withdraw their name from the ballot has passed.
That means that the names of both incumbent Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton will be listed on the ballot in the May 26 runoff, something many Senate Republican leaders — and even Trump himself — acknowledged they did not want.
White House officials say Trump may still choose to endorse in the race. Either candidate could still unofficially withdraw from the runoff, despite the deadline, but his name would still appear on the ballot.
Republicans see Texas as key to maintaining their Senate majority and had hoped they wouldn’t have to spend significantly more resources on a runoff after the already expensive primary. Senate GOP leaders had been intensely pressuring Trump to back Cornyn, who they saw as much more likely to win in a general election.
Trump vowed to endorse in the bitter runoff earlier this month, writing on social media that he would be asking whichever candidate he did not support to “immediately drop out of the race.”
The ultimatum thrilled Senate GOP leaders, because the president had been gravitating toward endorsing Cornyn. But Trump and some top advisers grew frustrated after his intentions leaked to the press, CNN previously reported.
The decision was further complicated by Trump’s desire to directly tie his prized endorsement to his fixation with his “SAVE America Act” — which, among other things, would impose stricter voter ID requirements.
In early March, Paxton announced that if the Senate passed the president’s voting restrictions bill — even if it took changing the chamber’s filibuster rules — he would consider dropping out of the runoff race. White House officials viewed the ploy as a “genius move,” as one Trump official described it, and it kept Paxton in the mix.
Adding to potential confusion over the endorsement and the deadline, Texas’ final withdrawal date is not a set day. Under state law, candidates have until three days after the results are finalized, or “canvassed,” to withdraw from the runoff. If the Texas GOP had canvassed their results on the last possible date, the withdrawal deadline would’ve been Wednesday, but since they canvassed a day earlier, the deadline slid to Tuesday at 5 p.m. CST.
Ethan Cohen contributed to this report.
