President Trump endorsed Ken Paxton in his Texas Republican Senate primary yesterday against incumbent Senator John Cornyn. Already an underdog, Cornyn's chances of winning the primary dropped to just 6% on the betting markets after the endorsement. Some notes: Paxton is a poor general election candidate, with a laundry list of political and personal scandals. He is roughly a coin-flip right now against Democrat James Talarico on the betting markets, but almost everyone believes that (a) Cornyn would have cruised to reelection and (b) it is going to take a huge financial investment by the GOP to get Paxton over the top. This phenomenon—Republican primary voters choosing poor general election candidates in races against either shoe-in or highly competitive general election candidates, who then went on to lose in the general election—has plagued the GOP for over 15 years now. There are at least 10 instances of this happening in GOP primaries since 20101: Christine O'Donnell defeating…
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