John Cornyn, a fixture of Texas politics and Senate Republican leadership, is an unusual underdog fighting for his political life in a party primary underscoring how drastically President Donald Trump has changed the GOP.
Cornyn, who’s in his fourth Senate term, is lagging in early polling behind state attorney general Ken Paxton, a more combative Republican who has embraced Trump’s style of politics.
It’s a stunning position for Cornyn, who’s undefeated in state elections and embodies much of what the Republican Party in Texas has represented since it rose to one-party dominance in the 1990s under then-Governor George W. Bush. ...