At this point, after the results in Tuesday's Texas races, it would be hard to deny the power of the endorsement of President Donald Trump. Or the power of him coming out against your candidacy, as he did in Indiana against the Republicans who were not for redistricting changes.
That was followed by the defeat of Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) in his primary after Trump endorsed Julia Letlow, who came in first, but will have to go to a runoff, and a big win by Ed Gallrein to take down Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-04).
Now, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just beat incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who had been in office for more than 23 years.
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Massie's Hot Take on Why He Lost Is Likely to Raise Eyebrows With KY Voters and Boomers
Fox's Bill Hemmer did the breakdown of how powerful Trump's weighing-in was during a recent episode of "Hannity".
🚨 HOLY SMOKES. This is Donald Trump's 2026 endorsement scorecard and the left can't stand it
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 27, 2026
"Governor, Trump endorsed 8. He won 8."
"US House, 101 endorsed. He won 101."
"US Senate. He endorsed 9 candidates. He won 9."
"KEN PAXTON WAS OUTSPENT 9:1."
🔥🔥🔥
In the GOP,… pic.twitter.com/2uC4U6BLoW
As Hemmer explained, Trump endorsed eight for governor; he won eight. He endorsed 101 for the House, Hemmer said, and he won 101. And now with the Paxton win, Trump had endorsed nine, and he'd won nine. You can't get a better record than that. Hemmer also detailed how Paxton won, despite being outspent, 9-1.
Now, Democrats are going to go all in, spending all kinds of money, thinking they have a chance to win with James Talarico in Texas. That's going to be a tough row to hoe. Trump has already nailed him with a new nickname that fits him to a "T."
READ MORE: Trump Praises Paxton, Delivers Perfect Nickname for Talarico - Once You See It, You Can't Unsee It
You also have to think that this is going to make the folks on the right who want to buck Trump think twice about that thought.
But while it's right to recognize the power of the Trump endorsement or his coming out against a candidate, there's another very important thing happening here that needs to be recognized, and it's really what the phenomenon of Trump is all about.
President Trump is not dictating to the people; Trump is the response. Trump didn't make the people's thoughts on policy, so much as he was the answer to their desires. They voted for him for action on a variety of issues, and they want action from the people in Congress to support Trump in those goals. Now, the people are delivering a message to incumbents that they don't feel have been sufficiently listening to them.
We're seeing a lot of talk from influencers on X or liberal media about division on the right. Reminder: that's not real life. Votes like those we're talking about are the reality. This is the base going all in, saying, for example, in the redistricting battle, we want you to fight back against what the Democrats have been doing for years without a real response; we don't want people sitting back on their haunches. We're seeing this in the choices they are making from Indiana to Texas.
The Democrats are going to throw everything out there to win in November, and they've already made clear that if they get power back, they will be about retribution and fundamental transformation again, from impeachments to going after the courts. They will upend the rule of law, and if we think what they've done in the past was bad, what they're promising to do is going to be worse. If we think things are slow now, nothing will get done if they wrest back control. Yes, the midterms are going to be a challenge, but the redistricting helps. The extremism of the Democrats also helps because normal people don't want that.
We can't have people who aren't fully in the game, or are just interested in calcifying in a position and not doing what needs to be done. What the voters are showing in these primary races is that the Right can change things if they turn out. That's a good thing, and may more of it take hold.
