Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, August 3, 2025

“There’s a real can-do spirit in Texas. How else could we survive the summer heat and turn it into rip-roaring growth and economic opportunity? Our optimism manifests in other ways, too. Like thinking that a Democrat could be elected our U.S. senator in 2026.

I’ve heard of heat causing hallucinations, but come on. We’re a far way from that. Living on Mars under Musk’s America Party might happen first.

But it’s worth the thought experiment to consider what would make for better American politics, and how Democrats could crack the door to a different future.

I should disclose: I am a longtime admirer of Sen. John Cornyn. I don’t know him personally, but he was in the Senate when I was a staffer for Sen. Richard Shelby nearly two decades ago. He’s Big John, a principled conservative, one of the rare birds who has eschewed our political toxicity to work across party lines on guns and immigration.

But the senator is down in the polls. Badly.