You can learn everything you need to know about a politician by looking at who writes his checks. Not what he says at rallies, not the hat he wears, not the endorsements he chases — the checks. And in the Texas Senate race, the checks just cleared.
For months, the Republican primary runoff between Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton has been the most consequential intra-party fight in the country. Cornyn, the long-serving incumbent and creature of the Senate establishment, against Paxton, the combative AG who stood by Donald Trump when it mattered most — backing his challenge to the 2020 election results and supporting his reelection before it was fashionable again.
Senate leadership spent months lobbying Trump to back Cornyn. Majority Leader John Thune made the case personally. So did the NRSC, which went as far as publicly declaring Cornyn the “only one Republican that can beat” a Democrat in November. Meanwhile, Democrats have been practically begging for a Paxton nomination. Their candidate, James Talarico, has already raised over $40 million. Chuck Schumer told reporters flatly, “I think we are going to win Texas.” Bold words from a man whose party hasn’t won a Texas Senate seat since 1988.
Then, on May 19, Trump made his choice. He endorsed Paxton on Truth Social, calling him “a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas.” The establishment fumed. Sen. Lisa Murkowski called herself “supremely disappointed.” Sen. Susan Collins called Paxton “ethically challenged.” Thune went tight-lipped: “It’s his decision.”
But what happened in the twenty-four hours after that endorsement was far more revealing than any press conference.
Cornyn raised nearly $150,000 in a single day. And the donor list reads like a who’s-who of anti-Trump, Democrat-aligned money. Josh Fish, CEO of Suffolk Construction, gave $3,500. His company was slapped with a precedent-setting $34,000 fine by federal election officials for illegally funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to a pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC. You really can’t make this stuff up. Jason Rhodes of Atlas Venture donated $1,000. Rhodes has given nearly $15,000 to Sen. Bill Cassidy’s leadership fund — Cassidy, who voted against Trump in the impeachment trial — along with donations to Democrats Colin Allred, Elissa Slotkin, and Abigail Spanberger. He also donated to the Never Trump Lincoln Project.
Greg Keller, spokesman for the Lone Star Liberty PAC, didn’t mince words:
From Breitbart News:
“Moments after President Trump endorsed MAGA Champion Ken Paxton, RINO John Cornyn reverted to the John Cornyn we all know him to be: taking money from Democrats and the liberal coasts. Cornyn even accepted money from Lincoln Project donors! John Cornyn has simply taken off the MAGA mask he’s been wearing for Texas voters and returning to what he’s always been: a RINO who sold Texans out on a border wall and on the 2nd Amendment.”
The Cornyn campaign’s response? “Ken has massive funding from left wing trial lawyers.” That’s the best they’ve got. No explanation for why Lincoln Project donors and Hillary Clinton’s old network feel so at home investing in a sitting Republican senator. Just deflection.
And honestly, that non-answer tells you as much as the donor list does. When your defense is “the other guy has bad donors too,” you’ve already lost the argument.
Here’s the question every Texas Republican should be sitting with right now. Not whether Paxton is a flawless candidate — I’ve yet to meet one. But when the Lincoln Project, Democrat megadonors, and people literally fined for illegally bankrolling Hillary Clinton all rush to fund your senator the moment Trump backs someone else, what exactly are you fighting to preserve?
The establishment will tell you Paxton is too risky. I’d argue it’s far riskier to send someone back to Washington whose donor base looks indistinguishable from a Democratic fundraiser. Texas isn’t going blue because of Ken Paxton — but it might lose its soul electing people the other side is comfortable funding.
The runoff is days away. The masks are off. And the receipts are public.
The post The Receipts Are In: Cornyn’s Donors Tell You Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Patriot Journal.
