By Bo Erickson and Steve Holland
March 4 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he would soon endorse a candidate in the Republican primary for the Texas Senate seat and called for the candidate he does not back to immediately drop out of the race.
A Republican familiar with the race said Trump is expected to endorse U.S. Senator John Cornyn after he received more primary votes than Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in Tuesday’s election, as other Republicans warn supporting Paxton would be an expensive risk.
Trump’s demand that the unendorsed candidate drop out of the race is aimed at averting a costly runoff between the two Republicans in May.
The president had stayed neutral during the primary, declining to endorse Cornyn, Paxton or U.S. Representative Wesley Hunt, saying he liked all three candidates.
The timing of Trump’s endorsement was unclear.
“IT MUST STOP NOW!” Trump said in a post about the Republican face-off, adding Democrats’ newly picked candidate, James Talarico, a Texas state representative, is an “easy to beat, Radical Left Opponent, and we have to TOTALLY FOCUS on putting him away, quickly and decisively!”
One Republican activist briefed on the primary race said Trump is being urged by some of his advisers to endorse Cornyn because it could take $200 million to run a race in support of Paxton, and Paxton is a bigger risk in the general election compared to the four-term incumbent.
Republicans hold a slim 53-47 majority in the Senate, and Cornyn’s campaign argued Paxton’s personal scandals could risk a Democrat flipping the state for the first time since 1994.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cornyn was supported by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and his outside campaign apparatus ran biting ads against Paxton in the primary race.
“I hope the president will endorse John Cornyn. He is an incredibly effective senator for the state of Texas … and represents by far our very best hope of making sure Texas stays red in November,” Thune told Fox News’ “The Story” on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Steve Holland, and Christian Martinez; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis, Colleen Jenkins and Chris Reese)
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