Two anti-Trump incumbents voted out in primaries.

 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. NBC News/Getty.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has defeated incumbent Senator John Cornyn. NBC News. Paxton got the coveted endorsement from President Donald Trump after Cornyn failed to help pass the SAVE Act, which would have forced voter ID's. Paxton will face Democratic Representative James Talarico in the general election. Paxton has some controversies in the past but won an expensive primary against a well entrenched incumbent. Cornyn is the latest Republican who angered Trump and his supporters to lose a primary following Thomas Massie, Bill Cassidy, Dan Crenshaw and Brad Raffensburger. 

Congressmen Christian Menefee (left) and Al Green. NBC News/Getty.

In a race that saw to incumbent Congressmen running against each other, freshman congressman Christian Menefee has defeated Al Green. NBC News. Both men were forced to run for the same district after Texas redistricted their Houston area congressional district. Green decided to run in the 18th district after his current district, the 9th, was redrawn so that a Republican was extremely unlikely to win. However, voters in Houston decided to keep Menefee instead of Green. Green was an extremely vocal and long term critic of President Trump.

My Comment:

2026 is rapidly becoming the year where incumbents are getting voted out. Cornyn and Green are just the latest to fall. Trump can take credit for a lot of it. His endorsement was critical, had he endorsed Cornyn over Paxton, we would have likely seen a very different result. 

Cornyn was insufficiently supportive of President Trump and his agenda. Cornyn did not pass the SAVE America Act. He supported the bill, but was not willing to nuke the filibuster to do so. That was the final straw for a man who also criticized Trump for January 6th and was very slow to endorse him. 

And this was not a close race. Cornyn and his allies spent almost $100 million on this runoff and the original primary, but he lost by almost 30 points as of this writing. This just shows how powerful President Trump is in the GOP. Rumors of his political demise are certainly premature. 

I do think that Paxton is going to win the Senate race as well. Though he has had some scandals, he is in a reliably red state. He would almost certainly win against a generic Democrat. But his opponent James Talarico is a far left nutjob to the point where he even said that God was non-binary. That is not something that is going to play well in a religious state like Texas and I would be shocked if the race between Paxton and Talarico is even close. 

As for Green, it was pretty arrogant of him to run against Menefee in the first place. Moving districts, even after a redistricting, is a good way to lose, especially if the incumbent is reasonably popular. I am sure that Green thought that his comparatively higher national profile would translate well to this election, but it absolutely did not.

Age was a pretty big factor in the election as well. Green is 78 while Menefee is 38 and folks felt that Green's age was a major issue. Green didn't have too much of a future and it's very possible that he wouldn't have even survive a full 2 year term. It's no surprise that they stuck with Menefee, who was well liked, young and has a future. 

Regardless, I am very happy that Green is gone. He was one of the most annoying and disrespectful members of Congress and acted like he was more important than the President of the United States during several State of the Union speeches. Though Trump had little to do with getting rid of him, other than encouraging redistricting in Texas, he is also going to be celebrating the fact that Green is gone.