Texas Republicans have nominated scandal-plagued state Attorney General Ken Paxton for the U.S. Senate seat, beating incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a runoff after President Trump’s endorsement helped flip the primary in Paxton’s favor. Cornyn’s loss sets up a d
In Katy, Texas, the day after President Trump endorsed Ken Paxton, the message from the state attorney general was blunt: “Whenever I’m around him, good things happen.” Paxton added that “good things happen to me and good things happen for Texas,” before telling voters, “So I love Donald Trump.”
Less than a week later, those words landed like a victory lap. Texas Republicans nominated Paxton in the U.S. Senate primary after a race call by the Associated Press. The call effectively unseats Sen. John Cornyn. a longstanding figure in the party’s establishment wing. and turns the spotlight toward whether the bruising GOP primary has permanently changed the tone of the general election.
Paxton, 63, beat Cornyn, 74, in the runoff after both men failed to secure a majority in the state’s March primary. The contest, fueled by national attention and relentless spending, became the most expensive Senate primary in history, with Republicans spending $100 million.
The fight has now set up a November matchup against Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico. For Democrats, the seat is a rare opening: a Democrat has not been elected statewide in Texas since 1994. But Democrats are counting on the same thing Republicans are trying to paper over—divisions inside their own party—and the fallout of Trump administration policies. including backlash over rising prices and the Iran war.
Paxton’s nomination also reaffirmed Trump’s grip on the Republican party even as his poll numbers have fallen and political upheaval has churned through Washington. Trump endorsed the MAGA loyalist last week while early voting was underway. energizing Paxton supporters and putting Cornyn’s fifth-term bid into a fight he had not planned for.
Where Cornyn lost, many of the details are about trust—and what voters think they’ve been asked to forgive.
Paxton arrived in the race with heavy legal and personal baggage. Since becoming a state official more than ten years ago. he has faced and fought off criminal indictments. whistleblower allegations. and an impeachment by the Texas House. He was acquitted in the Texas Senate. He is also dealing with a personal rupture: his estranged wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce last summer on “biblical grounds.”.
To Paxton’s supporters, those battles were not disqualifying; they were proof he was a fighter—an echo of the posture they admire in Trump.
They pointed to what they viewed as Cornyn’s betrayal of the party’s direction. arguing Cornyn worked with Democrats on bipartisan gun legislation after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde. Texas. They also said Cornyn should have pushed to end the Senate filibuster to clear the way for the Trump-backed SAVE Act. aimed at installing new voting restrictions.
Cornyn’s campaign framed the race differently, turning the focus onto the “crack” inside Texas Republicans.
Even after Trump’s endorsement. Cornyn told NPR from a North Texas campaign stop last week that “the race exposed a crack in the red wall of the reliable Republican state.” His supporters felt blindsided by the endorsement and shared his warning that a Paxton nomination could alienate voters in the general election.
Cornyn also cast his own approach as a builder rather than a destroyer. “I’ve always believed in the politics of addition, not subtraction,” he said. “And that’s what’s allowed us to build the Republican Party in Texas and across the nation. And I don’t think we should turn our backs on that.”
The conflict has carried a personal edge for Cornyn as well. He made it clear to voters that he believes Paxton is a serious threat to the party, and his own decision to run was shaped by that concern.
“He said it plainly to NPR. ” calling Paxton unrepentant about the scandals he has been involved in and arguing Paxton “doesn’t really care about anything else other than himself.” Cornyn also described the contrast he sees in a different kind of candidate. telling NPR. “Look. if there were some honorable person … who would do a good job. it would be far different.”.
Cornyn’s own political story is a long one, rooted in establishment credibility. He began his political career as a state district judge in the 1980s. later won election to the state’s Supreme Court. and became Texas attorney general in the late 1990s. He won his first U.S. Senate seat in 2002 and became Senate majority whip about a decade later. The current majority leader, John Thune, R-S.D., took over the role in 2019.
For years, Cornyn was seen as a moderate who helped build the state and national party’s establishment wing. With Trump’s election, he moved right and largely aligned with the president. But his bipartisan work still set off alarms among MAGA supporters—alarms that Cornyn now has to contend with in the aftermath of his loss.
Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, put the challenge in blunt terms: it could be difficult for Republicans to unite after airing their dirty laundry in Texas.
“The stain of the fight has left a lasting problem for unity among Republicans,” Rottinghaus said. “There’s a concern among Republicans that the rank and file are either abandoning the party by voting for Democrats … to switch an election or they’re simply not participating. If either of those things happen. then it’s a real liability for Republicans trying to get unity going forward in November.”.
Republicans now face a clock: the general election in November. with a Democrat they hope to avoid and a party that has already split in public. The next phase won’t just be about how voters feel about Paxton. It will be about whether the damage done inside the GOP primary turns into lost turnout—or a sudden. quiet decision to switch course.
Texas Ken Paxton John Cornyn President Trump U.S. Senate Republican primary runoff James Talarico SAVE Act voting restrictions MAGA Texas House impeachment Angela Paxton divorce