Texas Toast: Paxton Defeats Cornyn. Al Green & Concentration Camp Fan Lose. So Soon? Mamdani Admits Seizing Private Property Might Be Necessary. Memorial Day Hijacked. More
Well, Texas, the eyes of the nation are upon you today, all the livelong day. What to make of the Texas-sized political earthquake that hit Texas yesterday?
AG Ken Paxton walloped incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the Lone Star state’s GOP primary runoff yesterday, sending tremors far and wide.
A Wall Street Journal story suggests the Paxton win made strange bedfellows:
President Trump and Democrats rarely find themselves in alignment. Yet both sides wanted the same outcome in Tuesday’s Texas Senate primary runoff election.
Ken Paxton’s trouncing of incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican runoff represents Trump’s latest triumph in maintaining his grip on his MAGA base after he similarly ousted rivals in Indiana, Louisiana and Kentucky.
But to the delight of Democrats, the president’s decision to make an 11th-hour endorsement of Paxton could put the Senate seat in play for James Talarico after decades of Democratic futility in the Lone Star State.
An editorial in the same venerable outlet headlined “The Ken Paxton Republicans” is brutal:
Mr. Paxton is known for his polarizing style, ethical travails and lousy political judgment, but he won over Mr. Trump with his fealty and bombast.
Mr. Paxton represents the serrated edge of the Texas GOP, for which “owning the libs” is the highest political value. He’s a conservative culture warrior on gender and race. But when it comes to economics, he’s staked out a record of anti-business populism that is little different from that of progressive Democrats.
In a Washington Post editorial headlined “Texas and the Price of Loyalty to Trump,” editors argue that President Trump may have harmed his own agenda:
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) lost his bid Tuesday for a fifth term after Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the GOP runoff. This saddles Republicans with a scandal-plagued nominee whose liabilities will probably force the national party to spend significant sums this fall to hold what would have otherwise been a safe seat.
A big enough blue wave could even allow James Talarico to become the first Democrat to win statewide in Texas since 1994. If that somehow happens, Democrats would probably flip control of the Senate — bringing Trump’s domestic agenda and nominations to a standstill during his final two years in power.
USA TODAY’s conservative columnist Nicole Russell writes:
It’s difficult to imagine Paxton heading to Washington focused primarily on the best interests of Texans rather than on the spotlight he craves and the political ambitions he shares with Trump.
The Free Press goes so far as to ask, “Is Donald Trump Tired of Winning?” “From his endorsement of Ken Paxton to the White House ballroom, the president is putting his own priorities ahead of his party’s,” argues Mene Ukueberuwa.
Very much on the other side of the ledger, Townhall’s Kurt Schlichter writes that “Cornyn Never Represented the Will of His Voters” (alas, behind the paywall). PJ Media’s Stephen Kruiser was upbeat on the Texas earthquake. Townhall’s Joseph Chalfant says, “Beware of Never Paxtons.” Meanwhile, Paxton is given credit for having helped to establish a long-overdue clinic for detransitioners in Texas.
Meanwhile, Democrat Maureen Galindo, a South Texas sex therapist who called for Zionists to be held in converted ICE facilities, was also defeated. And Rep. Al Green will threateningly brandish his walking cane on the House floor no more—he lost a special election primary to Christian Menafee. Jasmine Crockett-endorsed Colin Allred, previously crushingly defeated by Senator Ted Cruz, looks poised to make it to Congress.
What’s going on with the Iran negotiations?
President Trump is holding a Cabinet meeting today in Washington, originally scheduled for Camp David, to consider Iran. The discussion will include Iran’s demand for $24 billion in frozen funds to be released. Optics would be bad, even if the money isn’t delivered in pallets of fresh bills. “Is Trump blinking on Iran?” Guy Benson asks. Meanwhile, Byron York, also of the Examiner, asks, “Why doesn’t Trump just finish the job in Iran?” York answers:
So why doesn’t Trump just finish the job in Iran? The short version of this conversation was that it would take a substantial escalation of military force to change the current situation, and the president does not think it is worth it. The official did not detail just what a “substantial escalation” would involve, but the U.S. has already applied a lot of military force in Iran, so it would be a lot of force on top of force. It’s no surprise the president is reluctant to do it if there are other options available.
Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins asks an astonishing question: “In a Year, Will Iran Matter?” “The war made sense for President Trump only if he thought he could get a quick win,” Jenkins argues.
The New York Post has a double cover. The headline is “Give & Take.” “Give” is New York Governor Katht Hochul, who caved to the demands of the teachers’ union, and “Take” is New York Mayor Zohran Mamdami, who proposes doing what socialists have done throughout their dismal history: taking private property from the rightful owners. A story inside the Post reports:
Seize the means of accommodation!
Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani put bad landlords on notice Tuesday, pledging to help “transfer ownership” of chronically neglected buildings to tenants as part of his sprawling, new housing plan.
“When necessary we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers,” he said to cheers as he unveiled his administration’s “Block by Block” plan in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
“And for buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards – stewards that include community land trusts, nonprofits or even the tenants themselves.”
And so it begins. … The Daily Wire warns that Mamdani “Wants to Decide Who Deserves to Keep Their Property.”
Anything to Help Illegals Put Down Roots: “California Is Giving Free Solar Panels to Illegal Aliens,” Chris Rufo and Austen Hufford report in City Journal. They write:
We spoke with MAROMA customer service representative Ángel Quintanilla, who confirmed that the company had provided solar panels for illegal immigrants. “You don’t need to have documentation,” Quintanilla said. “They ask for their pay stub and a form of their income and, of course, the gas and the electricity bill.”
Despite a $49 million budget and nearly seven years of operation, the farmworker “weatherization” program has only provided services to about 2,000 families. That means the State of California has allocated roughly $23,000 per household for its program to provide free solar panels, refrigerators, and other services—a number that raises serious concerns about financial accountability.
Another One from City Journal: Former Virginia AG Jason Myares writes about Steve Descano, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Fairfax, Virginia. In a congressional hearing last week, Descano was forced to look at the mother of a murder victim, whose alleged killer was free because of decisions of Descano’s office. Myares observes:
Descano’s office maintained impressive-sounding statistics. Fairfax County is a safe community, his staff said. Of course, it looks safe on paper when you’re consistently pleading felonies down to misdemeanors and declining to prosecute serious charges. But creative bookkeeping is not public safety. Meantime, the actual danger—the actual person—walked free to harm someone else. The reality: violent crime is up 92 percent under Steve Descano’s criminal-first, victim-last policies.
Memorial Day Hijacked. Jay Rogers writes at RCP that some jerks preferred to celebrate criminals instead of fallen soldiers on Memorial Day:
Memorial Day 2026 should have centered on flags at graves and the quiet dignity of remembering Americans who died in uniform. It didn’t. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Governor Tim Walz turned the day into another lap of the George Floyd perpetual remembrance tour.
While families visited Arlington and small-town cemeteries, Frey posted a Floyd tribute on X before his office had offered a single word about the fallen. Walz, meanwhile, skipped a scheduled appearance at Fort Snelling National Cemetery — where veterans waited for a governor who never arrived — to attend the Rise and Remember festival at George Floyd Square.
It’s a tragedy that George Floyd was killed, but a hero or role model for the young, he wasn’t.
Fresh Breeze Blowing? Writing in the London Spectator, Peachey Keenan says, “Get ready for a Spencer Pratt Summer.” The subtitle: “He Can Win.”
