Good morning, and welcome to Tuesday, March 3, 2026. Two states hold their primary elections today. If you happen to live in Vermont, it’s Town Meeting Day.
1634: Boston’s first tavern opens.
1776: American commodore Esek Hopkins occupies Nassau, Bahamas.
1794: The first performance of Joseph Haydn’s 101st Symphony in D (“The Clock”).
1821: Thomas L. Jennings receives a U.S. patent for his “dry-scouring” process, the forerunner of today’s modern dry-cleaning.
1837: U.S. President Andrew Jackson and Congress recognize the Republic of Texas.
1843: Congress appropriates $30,000 “to test the practicability of establishing a system of electro-magnetic telegraphs” by the U.S.
1845: Florida becomes the 27th state.
1853: Congress authorizes the transcontinental railroad survey.
1863: Abraham Lincoln approves the charter for the National Academy of Sciences.
1863: Congress authorizes track width of 4’8½” for Union Pacific Railroad. Became “Standard gauge” in 1886.
1885: American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) incorporates.
1905: The U.S. Forest Service forms.
1931: “The Star-Spangled Banner” officially becomes the national anthem by congressional resolution; the poem that Francis Scott Key wrote in 1814 is set to John Stafford Smith’s 18th-century tune “The Anacreontic Song.”
1940: American bandleader Artie Shaw records “Frenesi” on RCA’s Victor label; it hits #1.
1956: Elvis Presley’s first hit reaches Billboard’s top 10: “Heartbreak Hotel.”
1966: Canadian-American rock band Buffalo Springfield forms.
1980: The first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus, is decommissioned.
2018: The Emoji Movie wins the award for worst film in 2017 at the Razzies awards.
Birthdays today include: George Pullman, who invented the sleeping railcar; Alexander Graham Bell; actress Jean Harlow; Star Trek’s James Doohan; Jennifer Warnes; and REO Speedwagon’s guitarist Dave Amato. If it’s your birthday today, have a happy birthday.
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I’ve written often about the GOP establishment. I’ve stated several times and still hold that it has lost its way, becoming Democrat Lite. With that framework in mind, I note that primaries are cranking up. Among the higher-profile primaries are the ones in Texas, where GOP establishment critter John Cornyn is facing the most serious primary challenge of his career.
He’s now running third in the three-man race in the primary polling. Not a good place for an incumbent to be. [Editor’s note: There are eight candidates in the race. The polling the author refers to must just poll the top three, best-known candidates.]
A new poll of likely Republican primary voters shows U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s support continuing to decline ahead of the 2026 Texas GOP primary, with Cornyn now falling into third place in a three-way matchup.
The poll, conducted November 21–22 by Stratus Intelligence, surveyed 857 likely Republican primary voters in Texas. It found Attorney General Ken Paxton leading with 36 percent, followed by U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt at 26 percent, and Cornyn at 25 percent. Fourteen percent of voters remain undecided.
The poll results in this case are a bit dated, and the smaller sample size is questionable, but I see no evidence from other pollsters that the numbers have significantly changed since that time. Cornyn continues to be less than popular among the GOP rank and file, mostly, in my view, because of his reluctance to actually be conservative.
Cornyn’s favorability rating has also declined. The survey shows him at 35 percent favorable and 51 percent unfavorable, with 28 percent of respondents holding a “very unfavorable” view of the incumbent senator.
In hypothetical head-to-head matchups, Paxton leads Cornyn 51 percent to 34 percent, while Hunt leads Cornyn 52 percent to 29 percent. The memo accompanying the poll states that Cornyn has spent more than $40 million on advertising and campaign activity this year but that his numbers have not improved.
Wait: He spent $40 million to bolster his image and still ended up losing ground? That’s a total screw-up in his campaign’s management, or if it isn’t, his baseline support is more questionable than even the current numbers suggest.
I grant you that early primary ads don’t really help all that much; Voters tend not to pay much attention until it’s time to pull the lever. But still, the smell of death around Cornyn’s re-election has me thinking we’re going to see a shakeup here.
And Ken Paxton isn’t the only concern. There’s Wes Hunt.
The polling also explored President Donald Trump’s potential influence. In a scenario where Trump endorses Cornyn, Paxton still leads 44 percent to 41 percent. By contrast, if Trump endorses Hunt, Hunt leads Paxton 51 percent to 31 percent.
That was last August. Donald Trump, for his part, hasn’t endorsed any of them. One could easily argue that the lack of support seems to hurt Cornyn the most, since the easiest candidate to enforce is usually an incumbent from your own party. The signal being sent here is clearly that Cornyn is not a particularly strong candidate based on his record, this time around.
One of the reasons behind Cornyn’s tumble in the polling numbers is his flirtation with gun control. Voters in Texas are pretty much able to identify the camel’s nose when they see it slipping under the tent, in the form of the bill that the Democrats offered and the Biden DOJ pushed, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BCSA). (Why do all Democrat bills these days start with the word “bipartisan”?)
Shooting News Weekly points out that immediately after Cornyn sided with Joe Biden on the BCSA, the effect was immediate.
In short order, the Texas GOP formally rebuked Cornyn, President Donald Trump called him a “RINO,” gun rights groups demanded he apologize for calling party delegates who booed him a “mob” — and the most consequential gun-related legislation the nation has passed in a generation became attached to Cornyn’s legacy.
Now critics are turning up the heat on Cornyn as he faces two primary challengers in what is shaping up to be the fight of his career. They accuse Cornyn of capitulating to Democrats’ gun control demands and turning his back on gun owners — even though the bill largely did not restrict gun owner’s existing rights and was supported by a host of law enforcement groups.
Bearing Arms suggests:
It came after Uvalde, which I guess he thought Texans would be so irrational about that they’d suddenly support gun control, and he was just making the savvy political move.
Unfortunately, he’s learning all about how, if one f**** around, one finds out.
Mike McDaniel over at American Thinker seems to agree.
One such weasel is long-serving Texas Senator John Cornyn. Once thought a reliable Republican, he forgot which state he represents and stepped on a known Texas land mine: gun control. In Texas, weakness on the Second Amendment and cruelty to animals are two things among many guaranteed to provoke political death. Cornyn was thought among the most untouchable politicians in Texas until he went wobbly during the Biden’s Handler’s years and crossed the aisle to pass a 2022 gun control bill, the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA).” Cornyn wasn’t the only line crosser, but he crossed a Texas line, which Texans don’t forget or forgive.
I’d say offhand that Cornyn has annoyed a critical mass of voters and is in serious trouble, though I also think that this race is headed for a runoff, the outcome of which is anyone’s guess.
Thought for the Day: “People say nothing is impossible, but I do it every day.” —Winnie the Pooh
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