Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has defeated Sen. John Cornyn for the Republican Senate nomination, NBC News projects, the latest challenger backed by President Donald Trump to unseat an incumbent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paxton will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in a November race that could become key to the fight for the Senate majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump endorsed Paxton last week, giving him a last-minute boost in his bid to oust Cornyn, who has been in the Senate since 2003. Cornyn and Paxton faced off Tuesday in a head-to-head runoff after no candidate won more than 50% of the vote in the initial multicandidate March primary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paxton\u2019s victory is the latest in Trump\u2019s successful efforts to oust sitting Republicans whom he has perceived as insufficiently loyal as he tries to tighten his grip on the party. Trump backed Republican primary opponents this month who defeated Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and several Indiana state senators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paxton thanked Trump in his victory speech on Tuesday night, drawing cheers from the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and abandon people in Texas, he didn\u2019t. Instead, he gave his complete and total endorsement. President Trump is the leader of our party and his endorsement is the most powerful force in politics,\u201d Paxton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTonight, we just sent a Texas-sized message to Washington,\u201d Paxton later said, adding that \u201cchange won.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cornyn and his allies, including Senate Republican leadership, had for months pushed Trump to back him instead, arguing that Paxton would be a weaker general election candidate. But Trump ultimately sided with Paxton, whom he described as \u201ca true MAGA warrior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of Cornyn\u2019s Senate colleagues have long expressed concerns that Paxton\u2019s multiple controversies could put the Senate race in Republican-leaning Texas in play, diverting party resources from other Senate races, even though Trump won the state by 14 points in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paxton was impeached on bribery and corruption charges in 2023 by a GOP-controlled state House; the state Senate acquitted him. Paxton\u2019s wife also announced last year that she was divorcing him on \u201cbiblical grounds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Paxton and his team have argued that he has a unique ability to energize Trump\u2019s faithful supporters, who often stay home in midterm election years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is the same argument they made against Donald Trump,\u201d Paxton said on the radio show when he was asked about concerns about his \u201cbaggage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat people should really care about is back to my message: What have you done for the people of Texas when you have served them? And the answer for John is: \u2018I\u2019ve done nothing good for you. I listened to Mitch McConnell. I wasn\u2019t there for you. I was not there for Trump,\u2019\u201d Paxton said later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cornyn said Tuesday night that he would back Paxton in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spent most of my time in the Senate building the Republican Party in Texas and in the U.S. Senate. And I\u2019ve always supported the Republican ticket. And I intend to do so again in this general election,\u201d Cornyn said at his election night gathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But some Republicans may still hesitate to support Paxton, given his controversies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked about his message to those voters in February, Paxton said: \u201cLook, people can choose to vote on whatever they want. We have a president who went through all kinds of supposed legal issues. I have, too, and I\u2019ve come out on top. All I can say is I\u2019ve been acquitted. I\u2019ve been redeemed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has said both Paxton and Cornyn could defeat Talarico. But polling showing Paxton ahead of Cornyn in the runoff factored into Trump\u2019s endorsement decision, according to a person close to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Cornyn cast himself as a Trump ally, Trump said he \u201cwas not supportive of me when times were tough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cornyn stayed neutral in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, and in 2023, as Trump was running for a second term, Cornyn said his \u201ctime has passed him by.\u201d (Cornyn eventually endorsed Trump.) Cornyn also said the criminal charges alleging Trump mishandled classified documents were \u201cvery serious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paxton stressed his loyalty to Trump throughout the Senate primary, noting that he led a lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paxton and his allies are already gearing up to take on Talarico, and he previewed his case on Tuesday night<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy opponent is the most extreme radical the Democrats have ever nominated,\u201d Paxton said after his primary victory, dubbing the state legislator as \u201cTofu Talarico\u201d or \u201cJames Tala-freak-o.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lone Star Liberty PAC, a super PAC supporting Paxton, released a TV ad featuring Trump calling Talarico \u201cweird\u201d and highlighting a slew of his past statements about God and race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, once said \u201cGod is nonbinary,\u201d comments he defended in an interview with Semafor last year. He said the remark \u201cis not theologically controversial, that God is beyond gender. Maybe the way I phrased it, I can understand why it would get some people upset. But I would think that all of my fellow Christians would agree with that statement, that God is beyond gender, or, as the Apostle Paul says: In Christ, there is neither male nor female. That\u2019s not me; that\u2019s Ephesians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Talarico has said his campaign would not hinge on his GOP opponent, suggesting he would make the same case against Paxton or Cornyn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe already know who we\u2019re running against: the billionaire mega-donors and their corrupt political system,\u201d Talarico said in a statement last week, saying both GOP candidates \u201chave embodied a broken politics that enriches wealthy donors while costs skyrocket for the rest of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur movement to take back Texas for working people rises above party politics \u2014 because the biggest fight in this country is not left versus right, it\u2019s top versus bottom,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Talarico was quick to sharply criticize Paxton in a video Tuesday night, calling him \u201cthe most corrupt politician in America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat kind of corruption is the rot at the core of this broken system. It\u2019s why we can\u2019t afford anything. It\u2019s why we can\u2019t get ahead no matter how hard we work,\u201d Talarico said, framing this race as \u201cthe people versus Ken Paxton.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The general election in Texas is expected to be expensive, with some Senate Republicans warning that it could take more money to prop up Paxton. So far, Talarico has raised more than $40 million, though he has already spent most of it as he won a hotly contested primary, reporting nearly $10 million in his campaign account at the end of March. Paxton has raised $7.6 million, and his campaign had $2.3 million left to spend as of May 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Paxton won Tuesday despite having been outspent in the 11 weeks since the March 3 primary. Cornyn\u2019s campaign and an allied super PAC spent more than $21 million on ads since the March 3 primary, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Paxton and an allied super PAC spent nearly $7 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n