Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s decision to challenge Sen. John Cornyn sets up what’s likely to be a bitter and expensive Republican primary – and a battle for President Donald Trump’s endorsement – in the nation’s most populous red state.
Paxton is positioning himself as a disruptor, pledging in a social media post to “take a sledgehammer to the D.C. establishment” and dismissing Cornyn as a 24-year incumbent who’s no longer effective.
“It’s definitely time for a change in Texas,’’ Paxton said Tuesday night on Fox News as he formally announced his candidacy. “We have another great U.S. senator, Ted Cruz, and it’s time we have another great senator that will actually stand up and fight for Republican values, fight for the values of the people of Texas and also support Trump.”
Cornyn’s team wasted no time in striking back.
“Ken Paxton is a fraud,’’ his campaign said in a statement, before questioning his crime credentials, personal conduct and other matters. “He says his impeachment trial was a sham but he didn’t contest the facts in legal filings which will cost the state millions.”
Paxton, a former state legislator who is currently in his third term as Texas attorney general, has been embroiled in a series of political controversies and legal battles. He was impeached by the Republican-controlled Texas House in 2023 over misconduct, bribery and corruption charges. But he was later acquitted at his impeachment trial in the GOP-led state Senate. Paxton was also investigated by the Texas State Bar over his role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The most serious of the legal cases he faced — a federal probe into allegations that he abused his office to help a political donor – was quietly dropped in the waning days of the Biden administration, The Associated Press reported last week.
The GOP primary field could grow more crowded: Rep. Wesley Hunt, who has held a Houston-area seat since 2022, has been cited by Republicans in the Lone Star State as another possible contender. He recently benefited from a seven-figure statewide ad buy by an outside group, The Texas Tribune reported.
On the Democratic side, former Rep. Colin Allred, who lost a Senate bid to Cruz last year, is “seriously considering” getting into the race, The Dallas Morning News reported. But Democrats haven’t won a Senate race in Texas since 1988, and Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the contest Solid Republican.
Cornyn has been a mainstay in Texas politics for more than three decades. He served as a judge on the state Supreme Court before being elected Texas attorney general in 1998. He won election to the Senate in 2002, succeeding Republican Phil Gramm, and has been reelected three times.
A close ally of former Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, he held the chamber’s No. 2 GOP leadership post for six years until he was term-limited in his role as majority whip in 2018. He sought to succeed McConnell as Republican leader last year but lost to South Dakota’s John Thune.
For most of his career, Cornyn has handily won his elections – his most recent reelection effort was a 10-point victory in 2020. But the 2026 contest is his first campaign following the passage of a bipartisan update to the nation’s gun laws, which Cornyn negotiated with Connecticut Democratic Sen. Christopher S. Murphy. The measure came together with the support of Senate leaders in the aftermath of several mass shootings in 2022, including one at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Trump will likely loom over the race, with both candidates pressing for his endorsement.
Paxton has repeatedly questioned Cornyn’s conservative credentials and support for the president.
“It’s hard to think of the things that he’s done good for Texas or for the country,’’ Paxton said on Fox News. “I can certainly point to many things like his gun restrictions, his lack of wanting to fund a border wall and disagreeing with President Trump on that, and even opposing President Trump’s election in 2016 and the most recent election.”
Cornyn’s campaign pushed back, pointing out that during Trump’s first term, Cornyn secured the votes for the president’s key accomplishments as Senate majority whip.
“Democrats are trying to destroy President Trump, and he and Texas need a battle-tested conservative who knows how to protect his agenda in the Senate and won’t be outsmarted by Chuck Schumer,’’ the campaign said.
Cornyn is not the only Republican senator up for reelection in 2026 facing a high-profile primary challenger in a red state. Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who drew the ire of the president and his allies over his vote to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial, is being challenged by state Treasurer and former Rep. John Fleming.
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