President Donald Trump shook up the race a week before the runoff by endorsing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn.
DALLAS—A faceoff that could define the future of the Senate has ended with a defeat for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) at the hands of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who benefited from a late endorsement by President Donald Trump.
The Associated Press called the race for Paxton at 9 p.m. ET in the May 26 election that caps off the most expensive Senate primary in history.
Cornyn’s ouster marks the latest Republican to be defeated by a Trump-backed primary challenger, following Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and several Indiana state senators in recent weeks.
Paxton will face Democratic candidate Texas state Rep. James Talarico in November.
In the March 3 Republican Senate primary election, Cornyn bested Paxton, Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), and other candidates in that contest; he emerged with less than 50 percent of the vote, triggering a runoff.
As of May 19, AdImpact counted a record-breaking $25 million in ad spending in the runoff alone, adding to almost $100 million in Republican spending in the initial primary. In both races, most of that money supported Cornyn, a multi-decade incumbent backed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Polls ahead of May 26 reflected a competitive race. One University of Houston survey released in May showed Paxton leading Cornyn by 3 points.
The online prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket moved strongly in favor of Paxton after Trump revealed he would back the challenger.
Trump made public his pick on May 19, one day after early voting started in the state’s primary runoffs. Hunt announced his support for Paxton soon afterwards.
The Trump Factor
In a Truth Social post announcing his endorsement, Trump said Cornyn “is a good man” but was “very late in backing” the president’s 2024 reelection campaign.
Cornyn, though not supportive of Trump’s impeachment, spoke critically of him after the events of Jan. 6, 2021, saying that “the president’s language was reckless” and discussing the possibility of post-presidential criminal charges against him “if in fact the evidence supported it.”
In 2022, during the Biden administration, Trump and Cornyn feuded over gun control legislation. Trump called Cornyn a “RINO,” or Republican In Name Only, because of his support for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which increased restrictions on gun purchases and ownership, and which President Joe Biden signed into law.
