Ken Paxton Defeats John Cornyn in Texas Republican Senate Primary Runoff

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated four-term Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican U.S. Senate primary runoff on Tuesday in Plano, Texas, in a contest President Donald Trump used to oust an incumbent he saw as insufficiently loyal.

Trump endorsed Paxton last week, calling him a “true MAGA warrior,” and Paxton credited that support in his victory speech, saying, “President Trump is the leader of our party, and his endorsement is the most powerful force in politics.”

Al Jazeera

Cornyn, first elected to the Senate in 2002, became the first Republican senator from Texas to lose the party’s nomination for reelection, and he told reporters, “Tonight we’ve come up short.”

The runoff sets up a November general election between Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, whom NBC News projected as the Democratic nominee to face Paxton.

CNN projected that Paxton would defeat Cornyn and advance as the GOP nominee to face Talarico in November, describing the race as one of the country’s highest-profile Senate contests.

Paxton’s win quickly became a referendum on Trump’s influence inside the GOP, with the BBC noting that the outcome “marks a stunning defeat for an incumbent who served in Congress for 23 years.”

In his concession, Cornyn said, “I’ve always supported the Republican ticket, and I intend to do so again,” while Paxton vowed that “without a shadow of a doubt, I will be the Democrats’ No. 1 target in November.”

Al Jazeera

The BBC reported that Paxton, 62, had begun focusing on November by airing television adverts over the past week attacking Talarico as a “left-wing extremist.”

Talarico’s campaign responded on X by highlighting Paxton’s “FBI investigation and impeachment for corruption in which he was later acquitted,” and CNN reported that Talarico labeled Paxton “The Most Corrupt Politician in America.”

NBC News said Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Paxton, “we are making the pivot,” and Thune framed the stakes as keeping Texas red and keeping “a far-left liberal out of the United States Senate.”

With Paxton now the GOP nominee, the BBC said the November outcome will determine whether Democrats can win back control of the U.S. Senate for the final two years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

“Paxton dominates Cornyn in Texas US Senate runoff, the latest sign of Trump’s hold on GOP Paxton dominates Cornyn in Texas US Senate runoff, the latest sign of Trump’s hold on GOP PLANO, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican nomination for U”

AP News

Cook Political Report shifted its rating of the Texas Senate race from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican” after Paxton’s runoff victory, and The Hill quoted Jessica Taylor writing that “Paxton has a litany of ethical lapses for Democrats to exploit.”

NPR reported that the Texas Senate race is already the second most expensive race in the country this year, after the California governor election, and said that “more than $108 million has been spent on that one race this year.”

NPR also said a University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll from mid-April found that Talarico came out ahead of each Republican by roughly the same amount and that “nearly 1 in 5 voters polled had not made their minds up.”

In the runoff’s immediate aftermath, Paxton told supporters, “If Republicans lose this state, we lose the country,” while Al Jazeera reported that Talarico called Paxton “the most corrupt politician in America” in a social media post.