Texas showdown: Cornyn says only he can win big in next November’s midterms: Republican rivals ‘flawed’
Republican Sen. John Cornyn says that Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s campaign launch in Texas’ high-stakes 2026 Senate race is proof that “the Democratic Party has become the captive of the left wing.”
Cornyn, the longtime senator from Texas who’s facing arguably the toughest re-election of his political career, charged in a Fox News Digital interview that the bid by Crockett, a progressive champion and vocal critic and foil of President Donald Trump, shows that “even people like Chuck Schumer,” the top Democrat in the Senate, “have been hijacked by the Bernie Sanders and AOC wing of the Democratic Party.”
Crockett, a two-term lawmaker who represents a Dallas-area district, launched her bid earlier this month hours after former Rep. Colin Allred, a more moderate Democrat running a second straight time for the Senate in right-leaning Texas, ended his campaign.
Crockett will now face off in her party’s March 3 primary with state Rep. James Talarico, a former middle school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian who is also seen as a rising Democrat. The general election showdown in Texas is one of a handful of midterm races that may determine if the GOP holds its Senate majority.
Cornyn embraces Crockett’s entry into the race.
“I think she is unelectable in a general election in Texas. Texas is still a conservative red state,” Cornyn claimed. “She can’t win, so I’m really happy she’s decided to run.”
While Crockett and Talarico face off for the Democratic nomination, Cornyn is battling Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a competitive and combustible Republican primary.
And unlike the Democratic primary, where Crockett and Talarico are the only major candidates, the three-way Republican race may be headed towards a May runoff, which would be triggered if no candidate tops 50% in the March primary.
But Cornyn said that a GOP runoff won’t “really change our chances of winning in November.”
Cornyn is backed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in the GOP primary.
NRSC chair Sen. Tim Scott predicts Cornyn will be the GOP’s nominee, emphasizing in a Fox News Digital interview last week that “we are confident that Texas will be red, ruby red, with John Cornyn as our candidate.”
