John Cornyn Gets a Tea Party Challenger in Texas Senate Race
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has officially drawn a tea party-type challenger in the form of Iraq war veteran Erick Wyatt.
A successful bid against the powerful Cornyn by a political unknown like Wyatt, who filed federal election papers on Tuesday, would seem far-fetched, but Cornyn’s approval rating was only 40 percent last spring. Former Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) enjoyed approval ratings of 60 percent and above in the two years before he lost to state Treasurer Richard Mourdock.
Wyatt lacks the platform of statewide office, so he’ll likely face an uphill battle even to win recognition. Nevertheless, Democrats would probably welcome a vigorous charge from the veteran, whose most-recent campaign blog post argues that President Barack Obama is pushing for immigration reform to benefit an uncle who is an undocumented immigrant facing deportation.
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