Trump Endorses Paxton, and Other Thrilling News!
You can tell I engineered today's political drama as part of our spring subscription dive!
Welcome to another installment of Life Its Ownself. If you like what you read, please 1) hit the Like button at the bottom of this installment, 2) subscribe to this newsletter, and 3) tell your 1,000 best friends to read and subscribe. Also, feel free to comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
A couple weeks ago, I had the joy of meeting up with John Langmore, a law school classmate and longtime friend visiting from Austin. After law school, we went our separate ways but crossed paths again in the early 2000s as Texas legislative staffers, he in the House and me in the Senate. We parted ways again but have since remained in contact.
In addition to all his other talents, John is an excellent photographer and has published two books: Fault Lines, about changes to East Austin in the early 2000s, and Open Range, about the vanishing world of the cowboy.
John was on a brief motorcycle trip to the Trans-Pecos with a Canadian friend and fellow motorcycle jock, Brett. They were spending the night in Marathon before heading to Terlingua, Presidio and points beyond.
(John Langmore and I in the Broken Wheel Bar.)
As longtime friends do, we quickly caught up on each other’s lives. One topic that fascinated John: what, exactly, do I do all day?
This is a bit of a delicate subject. After working for 50 years in a variety of interesting and entertaining capacities, in my retirement I have come to treasure how little I do, not how much. Unfortunately, buried deep in my genetic heritage and Catholic upbringing is the fear that, somehow, I have not done enough today to eliminate world hunger.
I mention all this because, to the extent I think of myself as working, or at least productive, it is as a voracious reader of and thinker about current events, hopefully to digest them and share a few kernels of wisdom with you, Dear Readers, in these missives. Of course, I pack in time for occasional adventures with Marfawitz, as well as seeing friends here in town and during occasional visits to Austin.
I say all this to remind you of how grateful I am that you read and subscribe to Life Its Ownself, and how I hope to provide an experience you find a valuable addition to your busy lives.
With that in mind, and in honor of our country’s semiquincentennial this summer, I am announcing our Fourth of July membership drive!
1. We’re having a membership drive!
First of all, I want to thank you being loyal readers and subscribers as we approach the midpoint of our fourth year of publication. Many of you have been with me since the beginning, and been treated to such literary and confessional masterpieces as “My Decade as a Monk” and my memorial tribute to my good friend James Gaston. You’ve also accompanied me on my adventures with Marfawitz. I am grateful for every click, like, and especially comment you have vouchsafed upon my modest scribblings.
As of today, I have 942 free subscribers and 94 paid subscribers. I would like to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country’s founding this July by getting to 1,000 free and 100 paid subscribers, and I need your help. Please:
SHARE my posts with your friends, enemies, and countrymen;
RECOMMEND Life Its Ownself on Substack, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms; heck, tell your neighbors!
GIVE A GIFT SUBSCRIPTION to a loved one. Or to a frenemy, if you think receiving it will drive them crazy.
I consider ~60 new free and ~10 new paid subscribers a very achievable goal. I will update you regularly on the progress of our “pledge drive.”
2. What I Read
People often say to me, “Sir! Sir! You are the smartest, most well-informed current events writer I’ve ever read! Where do you get all your knowledge, sir?”[i]
Of course, like any good, thoughtful commentator-type person, I make a lot of stuff up. However, there are a few websites I check regularly to keep up to speed on events:
· My go-to read every morning is The Bulwark, especially its Morning Shots and The Triad newsletters. If you like to get your info via video content, they do plenty of that as well.
· In an era where legacy journalism has suffered, The Atlantic has gotten stronger and better.
· The Dispatch is good overall, and my favorite intellectual stimulant therein is Nick Cataggio’s Boiling Frogs.
Next week, I will talk about my Texas-specific reading habits. In the meantime, how do you get your political news? Leave a comment below.
3. Trump Endorses Paxton for U.S. Senate
Today’s big political story is about Trump’s last-minute endorsement of Attorney General Ken Paxton in his primary race against John Cornyn for the U.S. Senate seat Cornyn’s held since 2003.
The endorsement comes one week before the runoff election, when early voting has already begun. Jeremy Wallace reports in the Houston Chronicle that 100,000 early votes have already been cast.
There are three theories of why Trump waited so long:
Theory #1: Trump was genuinely torn between the two men, impressed by their long careers in public service and their unflinching dedication to doing what is right for Texas and the country. He agonized over the decision all through the spring.
This is the spin Cornyn would most like to advance, but not a single person — Cornyn included — believes it.
Theory #2: Trump wanted to endorse Paxton, but needed Cornyn’s collaboration on too many issues in the Senate — the SAVE America voter suppression act, support for the Iran war, and spending requests, including the Big Beautiful Ballroom. Cornyn remained appropriately obsequious, not least in the hope Trump would support him in the Senate race.
At some point, though, Cornyn’s usefulness ended, probably when the SAVE America Act hit the ashbin of history. The Senate is still a groveling indignity to the Founders and the Constitution, but Trump has become as openly contemptuous of Majority Leader John Thune as he is of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
If Paxton wins next Tuesday, Cornyn will have seven months left in his term. Like Bill Cassidy, recently turned out by Louisiana voters under a fatwa from Trump, Cornyn may join other disaffected and occasionally independent GOP Senators — Thom Tillis, Lisa Mukowski, Susan Collins, and Rand Paul — in making trouble for the Administration.
Theory #3: The race between Cornyn and Paxton has always been in doubt, and Trump did not want to bet wrong. Although Paxton has always been a darling of the MAGA wing, Cornyn surprisingly got more votes in the March primary, and most of the polling has shown Paxton with a slight, within-the-margin-of-error lead over Cornyn. It seemed too close to call.
But Paxton probably showed Trump internal polls that show him winning, and Trump is looking for a win. He’s happily taken credit for defenestrating Kennedy last week, and tonight is claiming the scalp of Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, whose apostasy in making the Epstein Files public earned Trump’s eternal enmity. A Paxton victory would make for a nice trifecta.
The endorsement tells us much more about the state of their race, the state of Trump’s presidency, and the condition of the Texas GOP. More on that on Friday.
[i] As you know about our current president, “Sir” is a tell that he is completely making something up. I can neither confirm nor deny whether I would engage in such a lowbrow activity.
Your political analysis, in this instance the Paxton v Cornyn endorsement, is spot on. But I always knew trump would pick Paxton. This is because trump always seeks out bottom-feeders whose indecencies are only exceeded by their rapacities. Such is Paxton. He makes Cruz seem almost revered in comparison. Texas has accumulated the greatest pile of political leadershit in our state’s history.
Cornyn was an ok judge and a decent AG - especially after felon Morales. But he truly punched above his weight with the senate. Although he always looked less awful than Cancun Cruz. Assuming Paxton wins, he may make Cruz look statesmanlike - which would be quite a feat.