Republicans call Cornyn 'lousy loser' for refusing to help Paxton's struggling Senate campaign

John Cornyn spent three decades building a reputation as a company man for the Texas GOP, and now that the primary didn't go his way, he's out there taking shots at the guy who beat him instead of just... going quiet. That's the part that's landing badly with Republicans back home. Nobody expected him to cut ads for Paxton. But there's a difference between declining to help and actively working to sink your own party's nominee in a race Democrats would love to flip.

And to be fair to Cornyn's side of this, Paxton isn't exactly a clean nominee to rally around. The guy survived impeachment, has an open FBI inquiry hanging over him, and just went through a messy, very public divorce with allegations that made even loyal Texas Republicans wince. If Cornyn's calculation is that Paxton is a general-election risk in a state Republicans can't afford to get cute in, that's a legitimate worry, not manufactured drama.

The problem is Cornyn isn't making that case. He's just lobbing personal attacks after losing, which reads exactly like sour grapes even if some of his underlying concerns are real. If he thinks Paxton can't win in November, say that plainly and let voters weigh it. Snipe from the sidelines instead and you hand every Democrat in the country a clip of a sitting Republican senator trashing his own nominee.

Texas Republicans calling him a "lousy loser" aren't wrong about the optics, whatever you think of Paxton's baggage. You don't have to love the guy who beat you to understand the stakes of handing Democrats an opening. Cornyn served Texas for a long time. This is a strange way to end that run.