Cornyn, Paxton is headed for the Texas GOP Senate seat after a devastating primary
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DALLAS — The race for the Republican Senate nomination in Texas is heading for a major contest, as both sides look for a costly, hard-fought battle.
The one who has been holding office for a long time Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton are expected to continue their bitter rivalry after neither candidate cleared the 50% threshold in Tuesday’s primary election.
That means the race, which has become one of the most expensive races in history, will run until May 26.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his bitter rival, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is headed for the contest in Texas, extending their deadly battle until the end of May. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Cornyn says he’s the only candidate in the field who can win a general election in the Lone Star State — something he’s done four times — especially against Rep. James Talarico, D-Texas, who unseated Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, early Wednesday.
But for now, his focus is on Paxton.
“As a primary, we have a plan to win the game, and we’re in the process of executing it,” Cornyn said Tuesday night. “Judgment day is coming for Ken Paxton.”
Paxton called himself a MAGA candidate in the race, saying he stood with President Donald Trump when others did not, especially after the 2020 election. He told supporters in Dallas that he felt the same energy in his campaign as Trump announced his bid for a second term.
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“Right now, I feel the same momentum, the same sense that history is changing,” Paxton said. “Now let’s talk about what just happened. John Cornyn spent about $100 million trying to buy this seat. We spent about $5 million.”
“But we have shown that there is something they will never understand in Washington – Texas is not for sale,” he continued.
Both sides depend on their narratives: Cornyn casts himself as a battle-tested man built for a general election battle, while Paxton casts himself as a candidate for Trump who can breathe new life into the seat.
Cornyn has the support of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, and, with it, a large portion of the campaign’s war money.
NRSC Communications Director Joanna Rodriguez told Fox News Digital, “John Cornyn is still the only candidate making sure Rep. Talarico never becomes a United States senator and making sure the battle for President Trump’s Senate majority is fought in the real states, not Texas.”
The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), the top PAC supporting Senate Republicans, which spent millions on Cornyn’s behalf in the primary campaign, made it clear in a statement earlier Wednesday that it would continue to support the senator in the runoff.
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President Donald Trump takes questions from the media during a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, March 3, 2026. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
“SLF and its sister organizations have been proud to support Senator Cornyn early on, and we look forward to him winning the Republican nomination on May 26,” the group’s executive director, Alex Latcham, said in a statement.
But on Paxton’s side of the playing field, operatives and donors are confident they can dethrone him.
Dan Eberhart, an oil executive and prominent Republican donor who supports Paxton, told Fox News Digital that “this was Cornyn’s shot to protect his opponent by getting over 50%, and he couldn’t do it.
Pointing to former Senate GOP leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who often serves as Trump’s foil, Eberhart said, “This race is about MAGA vs. McConnell.”
Meanwhile, Lone Star Liberty, a pro-Paxton super PAC, circulated a memo ahead of Tuesday’s election dismissing threats that Cornyn would prevail in the process by continuing to grill the attorney general about his string of scandals, arguing that he had nothing new to offer.
“Cornyn’s talk of ‘unleashing’ new attacks on competition is rubbish,” the memo said. “The truth is that from day one, his soldiers fired all the ammunition they had. There are no new attacks left – more of the same, with ever-higher costs and ever-diminishing returns.”
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But the variable that has the biggest effect on the competition may not be millions of dollars in advertising spending or nonsense. It could be whoever Trump decides to endorse.
So far, he has never entered a race. He indicated last month that he likes both Cornyn and Paxton, as well as Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, who dropped out after finishing third.
The Senate Republican leadership continues to believe that Trump’s endorsement of Cornyn will put the race to bed and allow the party to focus on the Senate battleground map. That approval may prove to be even more important than the first battle.
A GOP political party on Trump’s trail told Fox News Digital that “Talarico being the nominee makes President Trump’s endorsement of Cornyn more important than ever.”
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