Republicans are confronting the possibility that they could lose a Texas Senate seat for the first time in more than 20 years. Sen. John Cornyn, pushed aside by his own party after nearly 25 years in the Senate, has a blunt response for the GOP: He warned them.

During the Republican primary, Cornyn repeatedly argued that nominating Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton would create a disaster for the party. Paxton nevertheless defeated Cornyn in the GOP primary runoff, leaving the longtime senator with little apparent interest in rescuing his former opponent.

“If he is the nominee, it’ll take hundreds of millions of dollars to try to save him, and it’s likely not to be successful because the mainstream media loves [Democratic nominee James] Talarico. It’s like the second coming of Beto O’Rourke. And you remember what that was like,” Cornyn said in May.

Now, with fewer than six weeks remaining before Election Day, Paxton is trailing in the polls. Republican aligned outside groups are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the contest in an attempt to keep the seat in GOP hands.

The advertising blitz does not appear to be easing Paxton’s central problem. Even some Republican voters describe him as too corrupt and morally bankrupt to support, a brutal verdict that piles more trouble onto an already struggling campaign.

Cornyn told CNN’s Manu Raju on Friday that he does not plan to help Paxton during the closing stretch. He cited “all the reasons that we pointed out in the primary” while watching the candidate who defeated him struggle in the general election.

Those reasons, according to the source article, include Paxton’s adultery, self dealing, and corrupt conduct. The article also says Paxton offered a child sex offender one day in prison and no sex offender registration through a plea bargain as a favor to a donor.

Cornyn’s message amounts to a warning that Republicans created this mess themselves by choosing Paxton. He has suggested that losing the race could force the party to confront the risks of selecting candidates who repel voters beyond the Republican primary electorate.

“If we nominate flawed candidates in November, we risk losing, and we haven’t elected a Democrat statewide in Texas since before 1994,” Cornyn said. He added, “And this is the way that majority parties become minority parties, by nominating candidates that are less than appealing to a general election electorate.”

There is an unmistakable streak of payback in Cornyn’s refusal to pitch in after Republicans kicked him to the curb. Whether his absence changes the race is another question, since the intense Republican spending has not erased Paxton’s deeply established image among voters.

With 39 days remaining before Election Day, and even less time before early voting begins, opinions about Paxton appear firmly set. A focus group of a dozen Donald Trump voters produced especially grim results for Republicans, with participants describing Paxton as “corrupt,” “amoral,” and a “crook.”

That reaction helps explain why GOP operatives are privately acknowledging that Democratic nominee James Talarico could win. The party’s massive advertising push is colliding with doubts about Paxton from voters who would ordinarily be expected to support a Republican nominee.

“It’s going to take a Herculean effort to hold the seat,” an unnamed veteran Texas GOP operative bracing for a Talarico victory told Politico. That is hardly a confident assessment for a party trying to protect a Senate seat in a state where it has not elected a Democrat statewide since before 1994.

The same operative predicted an epic blame game if Paxton loses. “The Monday morning quarterbacking is going to be biblical. The hand-wringing and the blaming. Paxton will blame Cornyn. Trump will blame Paxton. Trump should blame himself.”

The president endorsed Paxton over a long serving Republican senator, rejecting conventional wisdom and helping shape the primary result. Cornyn is now standing aside while Republicans spend enormous sums trying to salvage the candidate they chose over him.

If Paxton falls short, the recriminations promised by that GOP operative could arrive quickly and loudly. Cornyn, meanwhile, will be able to watch from the sidelines as his party wrestles with a warning it chose to ignore.