‘money Being Burned’: Donors Fret Over Cornyn Primary As Trump Sits Back

The hundreds of donors gathered in Palm Beach, Florida, for the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm retreat on Saturday heard President Donald Trump’s political team outline how they plan to win the midterms.

While no one at the Breakers resort publicly complained about Trump's refusal to endorse Sen. John Cornyn, privately donors are furious, discussing over cocktail hour a looming and seemingly avoidable debacle, according to three people who attended the events.

One of those donors, who like others interviewed was granted anonymity to discuss the gathering candidly, said an off-cycle election “was always going to be complicated, but this three-way primary is a self-inflicted wound.”

Nervous donors watching a formerly safe Republican seat and high-profile special elections lost to insurgent Democrats fretted that Texas could also suddenly become unnecessarily competitive – and even more expensive for them – if Cornyn’s primary challengers, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton or Rep. Wesley Hunt, force a runoff. Those establishment GOP donors gathered at the Breakers were largely aligned behind Cornyn and want to pull Trump into that, thinking he can clear the field, despite the president keeping the incumbent twisting in the wind.

Trump has explained his position as an issue of personal relationships, saying his “problem” is “I’m friendly with all of them.” “I like all of them, all three,” he said earlier this month.

But donors, many of whom increasingly feel like they’re throwing good money after bad, are anxious for Trump to pick a side.

“Seeing the deterioration in overall GOP numbers in recent weeks has Republicans loath to watch donor money being burned in a Texas primary,” said another one of the people.

The White House did not offer any comment about mounting pressure on Trump to endorse Cornyn. Last week at a White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is “watching all of these races across the country quite carefully.” She added at the time that she wouldn’t get ahead of the president on potential endorsements.

While speaking with reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday, Cornyn argued that Paxton would lose in the general election and “drag the rest of the ticket down with him.” The Supreme Courtin December ruled that Texas can use its new gerrymandered House map, which could net the GOP five additional seats, in the midterm elections.

“Obviously it’s important to the president to win the new congressional seats, which are right below me on the ballot. And so I think that’s a pretty compelling case for why I should be the nominee,” Cornyn said.

Top of mind at the gathering in Florida was National Republican Senatorial Committee internal polling released last week that showed Paxton would lose the general election to Texas Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat, by three points, while Cornyn could beat him by three points. If Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett is the nominee, Cornyn would beat her by seven points and Paxton would win by one point, the polling found.

The NRSC, in the memo, said “Texas cannot be taken for granted, and the Republican nominee must be able to both consolidate the base and hold persuadable voters. Our data shows only one candidate meets that threshold: John Cornyn.”

Donors are hoping the polling data shown at the event will prod Trump to throw his weight behind Cornyn.

“There’s more optimism among at least the donor class that Trump might try to fix this now as opposed to waiting,” one of the people at the Breakers said.

On Monday, the Trump-aligned PAC, Turning Point Action, endorsed Paxton’s bid, making a Trump endorsement of Cornyn more complicated. Early voting in Texas begins on Feb. 17 ahead of the March 3 primary.

Cornyn told POLITICO on Tuesday he hasn’t spoken to Trump about Turning Point Action’s endorsement for Paxton, adding, “we’re running hard and three weeks from today will be a major development, major event.”

Skidding under the surface of the unrest over Trump sitting out the primary is anxiety about a House race in Texas last week where the Republican candidate lost to Democrat Taylor Rehmet in a district Trump won by 17 points in 2024. Democrats seized on the election as evidence of momentum. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the outcome was “very concerning.”

Among establishment GOP donors, “there are continued efforts to get the president to weigh in on the Texas race,” said a longtime GOP donor. But the person wasn’t optimistic it will be before the March primary.

“At this point, the expectation is unlikely before [the] expected May run-off when then [it] would become a two-person race. No upside now,” the person said.

Asked about Trump’s lack of an endorsement for Cornyn, the Republican National Committee poked at Democrats, arguing that infighting between Crockett and Talarico is more interesting. Talarico wasaccused last week of calling Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), who was in the Senate race until December, a “mediocre Black man.” Talarico has said the description was a “mischaracterization of a private conversation.”

“It hasn't been just a mediocre last two weeks for Texas Democrats, it's been a total disaster. The Crockett-Talarico-Allred woke-off is splintering the Democrat base and reminding voters of the toxic insanity that is identity politics,” said RNC spokesman Zach Kraft.