Sen. John Cornyn simply shrugged his shoulders.

The what-can-you-do reaction from the veteran Texas senator came this week from his being presented by The Independent with fresh data showing his home state’s Attorney General Ken Paxton, who beat him in the Republican primary after a Donald Trump endorsement, now trails Democrat James Talarico — in multiple polls.

“I could say, ‘I told you so,’ but I'm not,” he said. But the next day, Cornyn had a better attitude when asked about insurgent progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed winning the Democratic primary for Senate in Michigan.

“I’m for it,” he said of the Democratic shift to far-left progressives.

“Self-destructing,” was how he bottom-lined it.

El-Sayed, the former Wayne County health department director, narrowly defeated four-term Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate Democrat, to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.).

But some Republicans see El-Sayed as a more beatable opponent for Republican nominee and former congressman Mike Rogers. El-Sayed supports single-payer health care and openly criticized the U.S.-Israel relationship and Israel’s war in Gaza. He also said that he wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“I think the Democrats are making it easier on Republicans by, you know, ‘What's your choice between a Republican and a crazy person?’” Cornyn summed it up. “I think that's that's good.”

Republicans currently have 53 Senate seats. Polling shows Democrats are competitive or in the lead in midterm Senate races in North Carolina, Iowa, Maine and Texas. To stop Democrats from getting to 51 seats, the GOP would likely need to keep them from holding a Senate seat they have now.

And given that Trump narrowly won Michigan in 2016 and 2020, they think they can flip a Senate seat in the Wolverine State. In addition, they also think that El-Sayed winning by less than a percentage point can help them pick off disaffected Stevens voters.

“One of the things that we have right now, and you naturally have it, is you have an enthusiasm gap between the incumbent,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told The Independent.

“But that's probably going to tamp down some of that enthusiasm because it was almost evenly split, which provides a great opportunity to maybe go after some of those disaffected Democrats who don't want to go too far left, who may be pro-Israel.”

It’s already gone down some uglier routes. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is responsible for protecting incumbent Republicans and electing new ones, has taken to calling El-Sayed, who is Muslim, by his full name: Abdulrahman Mohammed El-Sayed.

“The Democrat primary results show their party is deeply divided with nearly half of voters rejecting El-Sayed,” an NRSC memo read. “Nothing indicates he will be able to unite his party or build a working class coalition, but Michigan is a true 50/50 battleground where we cannot take a single vote for granted.”

The memo also pointed out that Rogers only narrowly lost to Sen. Elissa Slotkin in 2024 when he ran for Senate, in a year Trump won Michigan.

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the former chairman of the NRSC, took it a few steps further.

“That’s who they are,” he told The Independent. “I mean, they're antisemitic. They want to destroy this country. They want to open borders. They don't care if criminals come in the country and rape our rape our wives and our daughters and our granddaughters,” he claimed about progressive Democrats.

Republicans are already tying to El-Sayed to Hasan Piker, the left-wing streamer who first caused ire when he said that the United Stated deserved the 9/11 terrorist attacks. And El-Sayed’s Democratic opponents, Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, tried to tar El-Sayed for his closeness with Piker.

Still, much of the Michigan Democratic establishment, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Sen. Elissa Slotkin, endorsed El-Sayed after his win.

Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats but is an avowed socialist — and also one of El-Sayed’s biggest supporters — pushed back on the attacks against the nominee.

“People have different ideas. But to start attacking somebody because he is a Muslim, really?” Sanders said. “To call somebody a communist because they believe that healthcare is a human right we should do what every other major country on earth does, really? I mean that just speaks to their bankruptcy of where they're coming from.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who initially endorsed McMorrow and then El-Sayed, said she was optimistic.

“They got nothing else,” she told The Independent. of Republicans criticizing the far-left bent broadly as socialist and communist. “That just shows you they're scraping the bottom of the barrel.”

Warren also said the midterm elections would still be about Trump.

“They recognize that they have enabled a president who believes in affordability is a hoax, and who is the most corrupt president in American history, and now they're trying to figure out how they defend themselves in these Senate and House races,” she said. “So Republicans have got a real problem, and name calling is about the best they can do.”

But Republican optimism does not mean they think they have a guaranteed win. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) warned about Talarico’s chances in the Lone Star State.

“I've always said that this is a competitive race,” he told The Independent. “I believe Ken Paxton will win because Talarico's views are wildly out of step with the values of the voters of Texas, but at this point, most of the voters don't know Talarico's views.”

Cornyn, a prolific money man, said he would host a joint fundraiser for six Republican candidates in Dallas and Houston. But he still said he would not raise money for Paxton.

“I knew you would ask me that, and you would be correct,” he said.