The last time U.S. Senator John Cornyn was up for reelection in 2014, he skated to a third term with 62 percent of the vote—outperforming every other statewide GOP candidate on the ballot who had a contested election in Texas.
Six years later, Cornyn may as well be running in a different state.
Texas is now the biggest battleground state in the country. On Wednesday, top election analysts shifted Texas into their presidential “toss-up” column as the state leads the nation in early vote totals and many polls show President Donald Trump neck and neck with Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Cornyn has never faced a viable threat to his Senate seat; now, he faces a strong reelection challenge in an unprecedented and unfriendly political climate. The Republican in the White House is a political liability in Texas, turnout is expected to reach unprecedented heights, and his Democratic challenger, MJ Hegar, outraised him nearly three times over in the first half of October.
