A Republican senator revealed the "colossal mistake" President Donald Trump has made that could upend the midterms.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who chose not to run for reelection, told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" that Trump's decision to support Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) could harm Republicans during the midterms. Cornyn is known in the Senate as a strong fundraiser, and Tillis claimed that Republicans would not need to spend as much money to keep Cornyn's seat if he were running against Texas state lawmaker James Talarico, a Democrat, instead of Paxton.
“He made a colossal mistake,” Tillis told Tapper.
According to reports, a political committee called Texas PAC has lined up roughly $117 million in advertising dollars to support Paxton in the midterms. That's despite Paxton not leading Talarico in any public polls, local news station KVUE reported.
“John Cornyn’s a great member of the US Senate. Paxton has his challenges,” Tillis said. “We would not be spending tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in Texas if Cornyn had won.”
Senator Tillis said President Trump "made a colossal mistake" by not supporting Senator John Cornyn: "We would not be spending tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in Texas if Cornyn had won at this point ... And so Republicans that go after other Republicans for only being… pic.twitter.com/1yT7qD98P7
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) September 27, 2026
