Oh, my goodness gracious, they were quite happy with this. They had a great time discussing it. and brought up a good point. What was a disgraceful thing can be turned around to our advantage. But it didn’t need to happen to the person it did happen to. Well, he can kick back and relax now. He won’t be certain of quite what he can do. But he’ll have some free time. Getting back on track, this is ironically entertaining. My respects to Raw Story:
All four co-hosts of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” were uncommonly happy on Wednesday morning after watching a clip of newly anointed Texas US Senate candidate Ken Paxton deliver his victory speech over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, calling it a gift to Democrats.
Ken Paxton is disgusting. He should not have won. I was hoping for Cornyn, and Trump has done him a dirty by endorsing Paxton. Cornyn was the *much* better choice, and instead, they are saddled with a sleaze. Yes, I know, “it’s Texas”, but that’s not the point. The voters chose Paxton. That’s a slap in the face to Cornyn. But there’s more to it than the travesty of the election.
Co-host Joe Scarborough immediately pounced on the Republican Party’s dilemma, telling his panel, “Every democrat in America says thank you. Because of what they have just done, what, by this guy right here, by overwhelmingly doing it, which is again, people say, ‘Oh, there needs to be a strong Republican Party.’ Really? This is what the Republican primary gives you. No, no, I don’t think there needs to be a strong Republican Party, especially if this is what the Republican Party produces. But think it’s hard to estimate.”
The party gave Texas Paxton, a man with far too much baggage, as their representative for the Senate, a man who has nothing really likable about him. If there is anything good about him, which is doubtful, please let me know. Right now there’s nothing. He’s disgusting, and he should not have won over Cornyn. But the people of Texas have chosen him. They do not yet realize their mistake. But they will, oh, yes, they will.
“Did Texas Republicans just cost the Republican Party $20 million, $30, $40, $50 million, $100 million that they could have spent in Maine, that they could have spent in Iowa, that they could have spent in Ohio, that they could have spent in Alaska,” he added. “Like they have cost Republicans maybe $100 million that could go to other competitive races. So, yeah, this is a huge win for Democrats”.
WHAM. They are now facing two things – a candidate with lots of baggage, such as he’s a serial adulterer, his own party impeached him, and more, and then they are going to have to spend far too much *more* money to try and get him elected to the Senate. This is exactly what Republicans were discussing before the primary – the cost of trying to get him elected at midterms. They won’t be able to spend it anywhere else, such as those valuable swing states. So, yea, as much as it pisses me off that Paxton won, this is a win *for* Democrats.
See you soon!
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“The voters chose Paxton.”
Minor correction, Susan. “The REPUBLICAN PRIMARY voters chose Paxton.”
Look back at the last race Paxton ran, in 2022. Even though he was the incumbent, he had 3 primary challengers in the Attorney General race. In the March 1st primary election, there were a total of 1,927,457 votes cast. Paxton got 823,199 votes while his challengers, George P Bush, Eva Guzman and Louie “Loony Gomer” Gohmert, got 439,240 votes, 337,361 votes and 327,257 votes, respectively. Since none of the candidates got a majority of the vote in the first round, that meant a run-off between the top two, Paxton and Bush. (As an aside, for a candidate who bemoaned the idea of “mail-in ballots,” it seems that 434,300 votes of Paxton’s total are described on the Texas Election results as “early votes.” If you do a little basic math, you’ll note that the “early votes” totals account for more than half of Paxton’s total; the same applies across the board.)
The May 24th run-off between Paxton and Bush resulted in a TOTAL of 931,800 votes cast. Look back at the primary number: 1,927,457. The run-off total is just 48.3% of the primary election numbers. Paxton got 633,233 votes while Bush got 298,577. If you compare both of those figures to the primary numbers, Paxton “retained” 76.9% of his primary number and Bush “retained” almost 68% of his primary number. But nearly 1 million GOP primary voters had no interest in the run-off.
Now, look at the GENERAL election number from November 8, 2022: 8,010,003 total votes were cast. Paxton got 4,278,986 votes (53.42%) while his Democratic opponent, Rochelle Mercedes Garza got 3,497,267 votes (43.66%) and Libertarian candidate Mark Ash got 233,750 votes (2.92%). Again, in the Primary, Paxton only got 823,199 votes and, in the run-off, he only got 633,233 votes. But when it came time for the November general election, he got more than 5 times as many votes as he got in the primary and nearly 7 times as many votes as he got in the run-off.
If Paxton wins in November, THEN we can blame “the voters.” Right now, though, it’s just the MAGA voters in the GOP who are responsible for Paxton’s win.