He will face-off against the winner of tomorrow’s Democratic runoff between 2018 congressional candidate M.J. Hegar and State Senator Royce West.
Hegar raised $1.6 million with $900,000 in cash-on-hand to West’s $430,000 raised and $160,000 remaining cash-on-hand.
Cornyn campaign manager, John Jackson, said in a statement, “The ‘Turn Texas Blue’ crowd wants to permanently change what it means to be a Texan — pushing for expanding government-run healthcare and higher taxes on our energy.”
“Senator Cornyn will continue to fight for the principles that make Texas the economic engine of America, and send national Democrats a strong message about the future of our state,” he concluded.
The GOP Senator has substantially outraised his opponents, but has also benefitted from fundraising for this race since his last victory in 2014.
According to the latest UT Tyler/Texas Tribune poll, Cornyn is up by double digits on both of his prospective opponents, with Hegar up 12 percent on West in the runoff. That same poll showed President Donald Trump down five points to former Vice President Joe Biden in Texas.
A June Qunnipiac poll pinned Cornyn with a 37 percent favorable rating and a 36 percent unfavorable rating — both low compared with other statewide elected Republicans.
In 2014, Cornyn comfortably won reelection over Democratic challenger David Alameel.
But in 2018, his counterpart, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), narrowly escaped upset from challenger Beto O’Rourke. Since then, Democrats have eyed Cornyn as a chance to complete what they almost accomplished two years ago.
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Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson is a senior reporter for The Texan and an Ohio native who graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2017. He is an avid sports fan who most enjoys watching his favorite teams continue their title drought throughout his cognizant lifetime. In his free time, you may find Brad quoting Monty Python productions and trying to calculate the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.
