President Donald Trump played a new version of a familiar role on Friday in Texas: reality show decider in chief. But in this case, he left the contestants wondering if he’d ever call a winner.
Trump visited the Lone Star State, ostensibly to tout his energy and economic agenda, just days ahead of the highly competitive Senate Republican primary set for March 3. But like an old beauty pageant empresario, the president wound up corralling the contenders in the vicious three-way race together, giving each hope as he dangled the ultimate prize before them: his endorsement.
“We have a great attorney general, Ken Paxton … we have a great senator, John Cornyn,” Trump said during his fossil fuel pitch, referring to the state’s attorney general and incumbent GOP U.S. senator, respectively. “You’re in a race together. You know that, right? A little bit of a race, gonna be an interesting one, right? They’re both great people, too.”
Cornyn, running for a fifth term, Paxton and GOP Rep. Wesley Hunt kept their manners as they gathered together for Trump’s speech in Corpus Christi amid their desperate battle for the president’s endorsement.
But ahead of his speech, which fell on the last day of early voting in Texas, Trump said he had “pretty much” decided which of the three Republican candidates would land his long-awaited backing. Cornyn has drawn the support of establishment Republicans who fear Paxton, a MAGA firebrand, couldn’t defend the seat against a Democratic challenger come November.
The president on Friday went on to call Hunt a “friend of mine who’s doing very well.”
The race is widely expected to end in a runoff with neither of the three candidates projected to clinch Texas’ required 50% plus one vote majority. That has national Republicans worried the messy and expensive race could drag on until May. And with Hunt syphoning votes, few are confident Cornyn can edge out his rivals to reach the runoff. (The Democrats have had their own share of drama in the contest between state Rep. James Talarico and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas.)
Trump carried Texas by about 13.7 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election, an expansion of his victories in the state in 2016 and 2020. But a sweeping upset by Democrat Taylor Rehmet to fill a historically red seat in Texas’ state legislature last month amounted to a “wake up call” for the Republican Party — and hope for Democrats who have struggled in vain for years to paint Texas blue.
The southern Texas port, chosen as the venue for Trump’s fossil fuel pitch because it’s America’s top exporter of liquified natural gas, is also in close proximity to a swath of competitive races in Texas’ newly gerrymandered House districts that could determine the outcome of November’s midterms.
The party that controls the House of Representatives in 2027 will also determine whether Trump is able to push through the handful of policy goals he outlined in his State of the Union address earlier this week.
Friday’s speech recapped those priorities, including tougher immigration enforcement along the U.S. border and establishing what the Trump administration calls “American energy dominance” — the prioritization of fossil fuel over clean energy.
Trump touted the barrels of crude oil the U.S. has obtained from Venezuela in the wake of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s ouster by U.S. special forces. “We’re going to refine their oil right here in American right here in Texas and then exported to all over the world. We’re going to keep some for ourselves,” Trump said. Trump fired off a slate of endorsements for incumbents competing in Texas’ Republican-held House districts hours before touching down in the state Friday. But Rep. Tony Gonzales, who is facing a tough primary challenge against gun rights activist Brandon Herrera in the state’s 23rd district, was noticeably absent from the list. Gonzales and his reelection campaign have been mired in controversy over allegations he had an extramarital affair with a former congressional staffer who killed herself last fall. The embattled congressman attended Trump’s speech Friday. “You have a great congressman… Congressman Tony Gonzales,” Trump said during his Friday remarks, which received a resounding “boo” from the crowd. Also missing from Trump’s endorsements Friday was incumbent Rep. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, who is facing primary challenger Steve Toth in the race for Texas’ 2nd Congressional District. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, endorsed against Crenshaw earlier this week. Cornyn traveled with Trump aboard Air Force One to Corpus Christi Friday. They were joined by Sen. Ted Cruz and other members of Texas’ Republican congressional delegation, including Reps. Lance Gooden and Michael Cloud.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky. Recommended
