They’re the outcasts of Capitol Hill, personae non gratae even in their own party.

Duncan Hunter, Chris Collins and Steve King have been excommunicated from the House GOP conference in the most public way possible: stripped of their committee assignments and forced to watch the legislating from the sidelines.

Now, while the rest of their colleagues work on crafting bills, the trio of committee exiles are searching for ways to spend their time on Capitol Hill so they’re not just waiting around to vote or aimlessly roaming the hallways.

Their options, however, are limited. They could sign up to deliver short, late-night or early morning speeches on the House floor, but those take place outside normal legislating hours and typically fade into the C-SPAN abyss. King this year has spoken twice on the floor, spending his time defending his racist comments to The New York Times. Neither Hunter nor Collins has given a floor speeches this year.

It’s all part of Cornyn’s resolve not to become the first statewide Republican casualty in rapidly-changing Texas. He won reelection by nearly 30 points in 2014, but the three-term senator saw Democrats reemerge as a force in the state last year — aside Cruz’s near-death scare, two GOP congressmen in once-safe seats lost. And Republicans barely survived in another handful of House districts once safely in the GOP column.

Meanwhile, millions of new voters have flocked to the state in recent years, and reliably Republican areas in the suburbs outside Dallas and Houston — where Cornyn has racked up big margins in past elections — have shifted hard toward Democrats....

Democrats say that Trump is a big part of why Texas grew more competitive in the last three years, and that Cornyn’s ties to the president will be a weakness in the general election.

“Cornyn has wrapped himself around Trump from the very beginning and he will be wrapped around Trump in the general election in 2020 by Democrats every single day,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party. “It will be a competitive race and it's a race we believe we can win even though we won't be able to match the amount of money that he's able to raise simply because it's a presidential election, with Trump on the ballot.”

It’s all part of Cornyn’s resolve not to become the first statewide Republican casualty in rapidly-changing Texas. He won reelection by nearly 30 points in 2014, but the three-term senator saw Democrats reemerge as a force in the state last year — aside Cruz’s near-death scare, two GOP congressmen in once-safe seats lost. And Republicans barely survived in another handful of House districts once safely in the GOP column.

Meanwhile, millions of new voters have flocked to the state in recent years, and reliably Republican areas in the suburbs outside Dallas and Houston — where Cornyn has racked up big margins in past elections — have shifted hard toward Democrats....

Democrats say that Trump is a big part of why Texas grew more competitive in the last three years, and that Cornyn’s ties to the president will be a weakness in the general election.

“Cornyn has wrapped himself around Trump from the very beginning and he will be wrapped around Trump in the general election in 2020 by Democrats every single day,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party. “It will be a competitive race and it's a race we believe we can win even though we won't be able to match the amount of money that he's able to raise simply because it's a presidential election, with Trump on the ballot.”