answer:Come on, dude. These are Republicans. Data doesn’t matter to them. It’s gut feeling. Someone has a feeling that this guy is going to do well, despite all the failures in the past. And you can make an argument that failure teaches you a lot. I, for example, would have preferred that Hillary had run health care reform again, believing that her experience the first time would have taught her a lot from all the mistakes she made. Who better than her to be able to avoid those mistakes the next time? Cornyn lost the Senate for the Republicans. But surely he learned from the experience. Surely he will be a better leader because of it. Right? Or not.