By Lauren Gassel | Reporter
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) spoke to a packed house in McGregor on the evening of Super Tuesday. He discussed the plan that has to be executed in order to win the general election in November.
Cornyn didn’t shy away from the fact the last Senate election between Beto O’Rourke and Ted Cruz was close.
“This is a fight for time, because you have people with incredibly bad ideas, who think they know better than you do and how to run your life and how to run the country, and they’re going to run it right into the ground,” Cornyn said. “They view Texas as being ground zero in that fight. They got so close in 2018. They are emboldened and you’re going to see a lot of money and a lot of effort trying to turn Texas from red to purple to a blue state.”
In McLennan County, Cornyn won the Republican primary vote with 78.47% of votes in his fourth Senate race. Democratic frontrunner Mary “MJ” Hegar led with 26.65% of votes.
In 2014, Cornyn won McLennan County with 71.06 percent of votes cast.
Statewide, Cornyn led the Republican primary in early returns with 79.3% of the votes as of midnight, while Hegar led the Democratic primary with 33.5%.
Cornyn discussed how important the election will be in November. In 2002 when he ran, 4.7 million people voted. In the 2018 election between Beto and Cruz, 8.3 million voted. In the 2020 election, it is projected that 11.6 million people will turn out to vote.
With President Trump endorsing him, it poses the question if his recent impeachment will affect Cornyn’s votes in November.
“I think President Trump will be responsible for 100% of the turnout in November. About half of those people love him and about half of the people not so much, so it’s going to be a huge contest.”
Cornyn was first elected to the U.S. Senate on Nov. 5, 2002. He won with 55% of the votes cast. He won a second term in 2008 and went on for a third term in 2014.
In his third term as Texas senator, Cornyn was elected to serve as the majority whip, giving Texas a strong voice at Congress’ leadership table.
Out of the 12 Democratic candidates running to face Cornyn, frontrunner Hegar, a 43-year-old Purple Heart recipient from the Austin area, has raised $4 million in campaign funds. In a recent University of Houston poll, Hegar led the Democratic field with 41% of the votes.
“A third of the state is not that interested in policy nuance. They want to see toughness, they want to see somebody who’s gonna go and fight for them, not fight to pad their own resumes,” Hegar said.
Currently, the U.S. Senate is held by the Republicans with 53 seats and the Democrats trailing with 47 seats. There are 35 seats up for election in the 2020 Senate race, with the Republicans holding 23. If Democrats could gain three to four seats, they would then take control of the Senate.
