Texas Senate candidates split on Trump Iran attacks before primary

SAN ANTONIO, TX – With the Texas primary just hours away, the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran is the latest flash point in the high-stakes, combustible showdown in the Lone Star State’s Senate.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn and his two primary opponents are rallying behind President Donald Trump’s decision to launch the attacks, now in their second day and culminating in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Three American service members were also killed in the fighting.

But the two Democrats vying for their party’s nomination in a bid to flip the long-held Republican seat in right-wing Texas condemn the airstrikes against Iran.

This year’s Senate showdown in Texas is one of a handful across the country that could determine whether Republicans hold their majority in the chamber in the midterm elections. The GOP currently controls the chamber 53-47.

President Donald Trump announced strikes against Iran on Saturday morning that eliminated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (President Trump via Truth Social/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“I think the president did the right thing. It’s amazing that President Trump is the only president in my lifetime who is willing to take this kind of decisive action to put an end to terrorism and radical Islam,” Cornyn said Sunday in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Cornyn praised the operation, saying “it was well planned and very decisive.” But he added: “There is still much to be done and, unfortunately, Iran still has a great capacity to inflict losses on the populations of the region.”

The senator’s main rival, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, thanked Trump for his “courageous leadership.”

Paxton, a staunch MAGA supporter and longtime Trump supporter who has weathered a series of scandals over the past decade, said in a social media post that “President Trump’s Operation Epic Fury is yet another crushing and historic military success.” Khamenei was killed and the terrorist regime that threatened our troops and our nation was decimated. »

IRAN’S NEARLY HALF-CENTURY WAR AGAINST THE AMERICANS

Rep. Wesley Hunt, an army veteran turned MAGA rising star, also congratulated the president, saying, “Trump has done it again. PEACE THROUGH AMERICAN STRENGTH!”

“Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is DEAD, and now the Iranian people have a chance to be free,” added Hunt, a West Point graduate who flew Apache helicopters during his military service and is in his second term representing a safe Republican district in the Houston area.

Trump, whose influence over the Republican Party remains immense, has remained neutral so far in the Republican primary. The three candidates, who sought the president’s endorsement, were on hand Friday as Trump held an event in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Trump has yet to throw his support behind in the closely watched primary. (Mandel NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

“They’re in a little race together,” Trump said of Cornyn and Paxton. “You know that, right? It’s a little race. It’s going to be interesting, right? They’re both great people too.”

Trump also congratulated Hunt and said all three candidates were engaged in an “interesting election.”

DEMS’ POTENTIAL HOPES FOR 2028 ARE AGAINST US STRIKES IN IRAN

The two leading Democrats running, progressive Rep. Jasmine Crockett and the Democratic Party’s rising star, Rep. James Talarico, blame Trump for failing to seek congressional approval.

“CONGRESS, not the PRESIDENT, but CONGRESS has the EXCLUSIVE power to declare war! President Johnson needs to call us IMMEDIATELY and it is time for the House and Senate to pass a war powers resolution!” Crockett wrote on social media over the weekend.

The two Democrats running, Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico, look decidedly different from their Republican counterparts when it comes to strikes. (Stringer/Getty Images)

And Crockett, a vocal Trump critic and foil, asked, “Why does this president refuse to even pretend that he cares about upholding the law?!” I stomped around and told people this election was a matter of life and death!

Talarico, speaking on social media this weekend, emphasized: “No more forever wars.”

But he did not make specific comments on the military strikes during a campaign event Sunday in San Antonio, Texas.

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Cornyn criticized Democratic candidates for not supporting the US operation.

“When the president, in an act of political courage, ordered the U.S. military, along with our ally Israel, to defeat the number one state sponsor of terrorism and prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Which side do they choose? They choose the Iranian side. It’s just mind-boggling to me,” he argued.

And the senator predicted: “This will continue to be a problem in the midterm elections, because I don’t think that’s what the American people want, to live in a new world where a nuclear-armed terrorist state can literally terrorize not only the region but the world.” »