The Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal has warned Donald Trump that this week’s primary elections spell doom for the Republican Party.
The Journal’s editorial board noted that Democrats were “climbing over one another to vote” in the Senate primary race between James Talarico and Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the historically red state of Texas, and that the key voting bloc of Hispanics also “swung hard” toward Democrats overall compared with 2024.
“This is emphatically consistent with the results in other elections in the last year. President Trump is inspiring Democrats to turn out, as he might put it, like no one has ever seen before,” the board wrote.
“Republicans hoped that redistricting would give them five more House seats from Texas, but a Democratic wave like Tuesday’s could nullify that result,” the editorial continued.
Tuesday’s GOP Senate primary race ended with incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and the constantly embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton advancing to a runoff.
Trump has not endorsed a candidate for the May 26 runoff but posted on Truth Social on Wednesday that he would be making a choice soon and then “asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!”
“Mr. Cornyn is a solid conservative who would be the favorite over Mr. Talarico. But Mr. Paxton was impeached by Republicans in the Texas House and has been dogged by charges of corruption. His specialty is culture-war trolling. Mr. Paxton would be an underdog against Mr. Talarico,” the board added. “If Mr. Trump wants a GOP Senate, he’ll endorse Mr. Cornyn as Majority Leader John Thune has been urging.”
Historically, the party in power almost always suffers losses in midterm elections. With the GOP holding a razor-thin majority in the House, and backlash to Trump’s erratic second term growing by the day, Republicans are already widely expected to lose control of the lower chamber in November.
However, the Journal’s board also suggested that Democrats could retake control of the Senate in the midterms, with Trump part of the reason the GOP’s 53–47 seat majority is “vulnerable.”
“Democrats are favored in North Carolina after Mr. Trump pushed incumbent Thom Tillis out of the race. Susan Collins is the best possible GOP candidate in Maine, but Mr. Trump said recently she should never be elected again after she voted for a war powers resolution,” the board wrote.
“An open seat in Iowa is no sure thing as Mr. Trump’s tariffs weigh on the farm economy. Democrats have a good shot in Ohio, with former Sen. Sherrod Brown as the Democratic challenger to appointed Sen. Jon Husted. Dan Sullivan, the highly effective GOP incumbent in Alaska, has also drawn a well-known challenger in former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola,” the board continued.
The board added that Trump and the GOP have to hope voters feel better about the economy by the autumn, otherwise the Texas primary results will be a “forecast, not an omen.”
In response, a White House spokesperson told the Daily Beast: “This narrative is the same delusional wish-casting Democrats and their allies push every election cycle. Texas remains a ruby-red state, and Democrats just nominated one of the most out-of-touch candidates imaginable in James Talarico—a far-left activist who thinks God is ‘nonbinary,’ thinks there are six genders, and backs radical policies that are completely disconnected from Texas voters.
‘When Americans see the contrast between Republican leadership and Democrats’ far-left agenda, the claim that Democrats are suddenly on track to win the Senate is pure fiction.”
