The news that President Donald Trump would weigh in on the Texas GOP Senate runoff, bestowing life or death on his loyal gladiators Ken Paxton and John Cornyn with a flick of his thumb, came as a surprise. For one thing, Trump had toyed with doing this since the March primary and had failed to deliver. For another, he was doing so on the second day of the week-long early-voting period. But there were signs that John Cornyn could feel the race was run.