John Cornyn spent 24 years in the Senate telling Texans he was fighting for them.
He lost to Ken Paxton by 28 points in May.
Now Ken Paxton is staring down a Democrat with 12 times more cash on hand – and every establishment Republican in Washington, DC just turned their back.
The NRSC Burned the Money Destroying Paxton. Now They Have None Left to Save Him.
Not one dollar from the National Republican Senatorial Committee is budgeted for Texas.
Sen. John Kennedy confirmed it live on Fox News Sunday, telling anchor Jacqui Heinrich the Senate GOP "don't have the money budgeted for Texas" and that Paxton would need Trump to ride to the rescue.
This is the same NRSC that poured millions into the Texas primary alongside Cornyn's political machine to take out the grassroots challenger.
They found the money then.
Federal Election Commission filings tell the rest of the story.
Through June 30, Paxton had $1.75 million cash on hand.
Democrat James Talarico had $21.5 million.
Since June, Democrats have outspent Republicans in the Texas Senate advertising by $31.5 million to $4.7 million.
https://twitter.com/JacquiHeinrich/status/2094096526540710002?s=20
Talarico isn't a moderate.
He's a state rep who described ICE as a "secret police force," insisted "the Bible is silent on abortion," and preached to his congregation that "God is non-binary."
Cornyn, meanwhile, is openly trashing the man who beat him.
He called Paxton "lazy," a poor fundraiser, and said he "basically is not offering a very compelling case for his election."
He has refused to campaign or raise a dollar for the Republican nominee holding his former seat.
This Is Not a Texas Problem. This Is the Playbook.
They ran the exact same operation against Blake Masters in Arizona in 2022.
Masters won the Republican primary with Trump's endorsement and $15 million from Peter Thiel.
Then the Senate Leadership Fund – Mitch McConnell's outside group – quietly pulled nearly $10 million in reserved TV ads in late September.
But Masters lost to Democrat Mark Kelly by five points.
On election night, Masters went on Tucker's show and said it plainly: "Had he chosen to spend money in Arizona, this race would be over. We'd be celebrating a Senate majority right now."
The pattern is consistent enough to have a shape.
Pour money into the primary to destroy the MAGA candidate.
Exhaust the donor base doing it.
Then walk away from the general election and call it a resource problem.
Cornyn is doing his part.
He told reporters he'd put his fundraising network to work helping Republican senators – in other states.
Trump Is the Only One Showing Up
Trump flew to Houston for an RNC fundraiser to help Paxton build a war chest.
"We're trying to get help from all over the country," Paxton told Fox News.
That one sentence tells the story.
The Republican nominee for Senate in Texas is appealing to the president to rescue him because his own party's campaign apparatus walked away and left him with nothing.
Kennedy tried to spin Trump's $850 million campaign account as an opportunity.
"The president says he has $850 million in his campaign accounts. That's a lot of jack," he said.
Translation: not our problem anymore, Donald.
The Cook Political Report has rated this race a toss-up – the first time any Texas Senate race has carried that label since Ted Cruz held off Beto O'Rourke by 2.6 points in 2018.
Think about what Cornyn actually did.
He spent millions of donor dollars trying to hold his Senate seat, but still lost by 28 points.
Then he called the man who beat him lazy and refused to raise a dime for him.
He told reporters he'd deploy his network – just not in Texas.
And when Kennedy went on Fox News to explain the situation, the best the Senate GOP could offer was: go ask Trump.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2094085442689716262?s=20
That's the establishment in 2026.
They burn your money in the primary.
They trash your candidate after he wins.
They hand the general election to a Democrat who thinks God is non-binary and ICE is a secret police force.
And when Texas turns blue on their watch, they'll find a way to blame the voters who fired them.
Texas Republicans threw out a four-term incumbent because they wanted someone who would actually fight.
Those same forces are now working to make sure the man they chose fails.
If they pull it off, they won't call it sabotage.
They'll call it proof that outsiders can't win.
Don't let them write that story.
Sources:
- Jacqui Heinrich, "Sen. Kennedy Hits the Panic Button on Texas Senate Race," Fox News, August 30, 2026.
- Ben Kew, "Sen. John Kennedy Sounds The Alarm – Admits Senate Republicans Have ZERO Dollars Budgeted for MAGA Warrior Ken Paxton in Texas," The Gateway Pundit, August 31, 2026.
- "Senate GOP Abandons Ken Paxton," Senate Conservatives Fund, August 31, 2026.
- Shawn Fleetwood, "Senate GOP Would Rather Surrender Texas To Dems Than To Its Own Voters," The Federalist, August 31, 2026.
- "John Kennedy Issued a Warning to Republicans About Ken Paxton in Texas," Conservative Underground News, September 1, 2026.
- "Mark Kelly defeats Blake Masters in Arizona Senate race," The Hill, November 12, 2022.