Texas voters to decide Cornyn-Paxton Senate fight after Trump steps in
Texas voters head to the polls Tuesday to choose a Republican Senate nominee, and the final days of the race looked very different from the ones that started it after President Donald Trump threw his support behind Attorney General Ken Paxton. The endorsement arrived late, but it changed the conversation around a contest that had already consumed more than a year and drawn more than $100 million in spending.
The race leaves Republican voters with two different arguments: a longtime senator asking for another term and pointing to his record, and a state attorney general arguing he represents the stronger Trump-aligned choice.
The winner will face Democrat James Talarico in November.
Trump makes his choice public
Paxton spent much of the campaign presenting himself as the candidate closest to Trump’s political movement, while Sen. John Cornyn tried to reinforce his own ties to the president and his agenda.
Trump eventually made his decision public last week in a post on Truth Social, saying Paxton has always been loyal to him, though he referred to Cornyn as a “good man.”
“Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
But Trump stepped up his attacks against Cornyn in another post on Sunday, writing that Cornyn was “very disloyal to me” and “didn’t fight hard enough” for the MAGA agenda.
Cornyn did not distance himself from Trump after the endorsement. Instead, he continued pointing to his Senate voting record and argued that Texas voters would ultimately make their own decision. Cornyn has also repeatedly noted that nearly all of his Senate votes aligned with Trump’s positions and referenced earlier comments from the president calling him a friend.
Campaign closes with competing arguments
The final months of the campaign turned into two very different pitches to Republican voters.
Cornyn and groups supporting him poured money into television advertising and repeatedly argued that Paxton’s legal and political baggage could become a problem in November.
Paxton and groups backing him shifted heavily toward Trump’s endorsement and continued arguing that he represented the more consistent conservative candidate in the race.
The spending reflected how hard both sides pushed to shape the outcome. Candidates and outside groups combined to spend more than $100 million during the race, according to the Associated Press, with Cornyn’s network carrying much of that burden for most of the campaign.
Campaign stops became less frequent in the final days, but television ads and outside spending never really slowed down.
Other races remain on the ballot
The Senate runoff sits at the top of Tuesday’s ballot, but Texas voters are also deciding several House and statewide races.
Democratic voters in a Houston-area district are choosing between Rep. Al Green and Rep. Christian Menefee in a contest that has largely focused on experience, effectiveness and who should represent the district moving forward.
Republicans are also voting in a runoff to replace Paxton as attorney general, with Rep. Chip Roy and state Sen. Mayes Middleton competing for the nomination.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
