MJ Hegar wins Texas Democratic primary, will take on Sen. John Cornyn

Mary "MJ" Hegar, an Air Force veteran, beat longtime Texas state Sen. Royce West (D) in Tuesday's Texas Democratic Senate primary runoff, and she'll face Sen. John Cornyn (R) in November. Hegar, who narrowly to lost Rep. John Carter (R) in 2018, was long considered the likely winner of the primary, but West, who is Black, gained momentum in the final weeks as racial justice gained prominence as an issue.

"As a working mom who's lived many of the challenges facing working families across the state, I'm so proud to lead the effort to take back our state from politicians like John Cornyn who are more D.C. than Texas," Hegar said in a victory statement. Cornyn, evidently considering Hegar the riskier opponent, "launched a late advertisement designed to look like he was attacking West's liberal positions," The Washington Post reports. "Instead, the ad aimed to boost West." The Cook Political Report rates the race Likely Republican.

President Trump won Texas by 9 percentage points, and Republicans feel safer about Cornyn's chances than those of Sen. Ted Cruz (R) when he narrowly won re-election in 2018. But Trump and Democrat Joe Biden are neck-and-neck in Texas polls this year, and Biden even started airing a Texas-specific ad in the state on Tuesday.

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"Trump's campaign on Tuesday laughed off the small new investment, and even some Democrats were skeptical of Biden's chances in Texas," The Associated Press notes. "Yet Biden's modest step into a state that hasn't backed a Democrat for president in 44 years reflected the extent to which the pandemic threatens to scramble the electoral map this fall."