“Texas AG Ken Paxton formally joins U.S. Senate race difficult John Cornyn” was first revealed by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media group that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public coverage, politics, authorities and statewide points.
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Texas Legal professional Common Ken Paxton introduced Tuesday he’ll problem U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in subsequent 12 months’s midterm elections, establishing a barnburner conflict of two Republican titans that’s certain to reverberate throughout state and nationwide politics.
The competition, teased by Paxton for months, guarantees to be among the many most heated and costly Republican primaries within the nation and in current Texas historical past. It additionally marks the most recent flashpoint in an influence battle between the Texas GOP’s hardline, socially conservative wing — which views Paxton as a standard-bearer — and the Cornyn-aligned, business-minded Republican outdated guard.
Showing on Fox Information host Laura Ingraham’s present, Paxton mentioned it was “time for a change in Texas” as he introduced his Senate bid and blasted Cornyn’s “lack of manufacturing” over his 22 years within the higher chamber.
[Ken Paxton’s legal woes are lifting, clearing a path for a likely Senate run]
“We have now one other nice U.S. senator, Ted Cruz, and it’s time we now have one other nice senator that can really rise up and struggle for Republican values, struggle for the values of the folks of Texas, and in addition assist Donald Trump within the areas that he’s targeted on in a really vital method,” Paxton mentioned. “And that’s what I plan on doing.”
Paxton’s candidacy poses probably the most critical menace to Cornyn’s political profession in a long time. It might mark a watershed second within the Texas GOP’s factional battle if Paxton — not lengthy faraway from an array of career-threatening authorized battles and impeachment by his personal occasion — managed to topple Cornyn, a mainstay of Texas politics who had an early hand within the state’s Republican takeover and reached the higher rungs of Senate GOP management.
Losing no time framing himself because the outsider within the race, Paxton wrote on social media he was operating to “take a sledgehammer to the D.C. institution,” whereas calling for voters to “ship John Cornyn packing.”
Cornyn has simply fended off competitors from the precise whilst his occasion has taken a pointy flip in that path. However now, the four-term senator is going through extra critical warmth over his assist for army assist to Ukraine, his public skepticism about Trump’s electability forward of the 2024 election, and his position main Senate negotiations on a invoice limiting firearm entry after the 2022 taking pictures at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary Faculty.
Nonetheless, Cornyn has remained defiant within the face of Paxton’s long-expected problem and after shedding his bid to change into the subsequent Senate majority chief — the primary defeat of his political profession.
Since then, he has taken on new committee assignments, placing himself on a number of key panels that can oversee main priorities of President Donald Trump. He ended final 12 months with $4.1 million money available, then launched his reelection bid final month with a video touting his time as Senate GOP whip “delivering the votes” for Trump’s “greatest wins” within the first years of his presidency. These included Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and the affirmation of Supreme Courtroom Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Throughout Trump’s first time period, Cornyn voted greater than 92% of the time with the president’s agenda and voted for each one in every of Trump’s govt and judicial appointees. He has adopted an analogous sample since Trump received again the White Home, once more backing all of the president’s nominees, together with controversial picks who attracted skepticism from GOP lawmakers.
A spokesperson for Cornyn’s marketing campaign responded to Paxton’s announcement by labeling him a “fraud.”
“This will probably be a spirited marketing campaign and we guarantee Texans they are going to have an actual alternative when this race is over,” the spokesperson mentioned, including that Texas wants “a battle-tested conservative” who “will not be outsmarted by Chuck Schumer,” the Democratic minority chief.
Because the Cornyn-Paxton conflict will get underway, maybe the largest looming query is whether or not Trump will throw his assist — and appreciable clout in primaries — behind both candidate. The president’s endorsement has helped increase quite a few GOP candidates in crowded Texas primaries since he grew to become entrenched because the occasion’s hottest determine practically a decade in the past.
[Attorney General Ken Paxton’s former aides win $6.6 million in whistleblower case]
Paxton has lengthy been a detailed ally of Trump, famously waging an unsuccessful authorized problem to Trump’s 2020 election loss in 4 battleground states. He additionally spoke on the pro-Trump rally that preceded the lethal U.S. Capitol riot in January 2021.
Paxton’s loyalty was rewarded with an endorsement from Trump within the 2022 main, which helped the legal professional normal fend off three distinguished GOP challengers, together with then-Land Commissioner George P. Bush — who, like Cornyn, went to nice lengths to courtroom Trump.
Trump additionally got here to Paxton’s protection when he was impeached in 2023 for allegedly accepting bribes and abusing the ability of his workplace to assist a rich pal and marketing campaign donor. After Paxton was acquitted within the Texas Senate, Trump claimed credit score, citing his “intervention” on his Fact Social platform.
Early polling factors to a aggressive race between Cornyn and Paxton. A January statewide survey by the College of Houston’s Pastime Faculty of Public Affairs discovered that 36% of GOP main voters “undoubtedly would take into account” pulling the lever for Paxton, in comparison with 32% for Cornyn. Extra voters mentioned they “would possibly take into account” voting for Cornyn somewhat than Paxton, nevertheless, and a better proportion mentioned they “would by no means” vote for Paxton — 19%, in comparison with 15% who mentioned the identical about Cornyn.
Paxton is beginning with stronger approval than Cornyn amongst conservative voters, in line with a February ballot by the Texas Politics Mission on the College of Texas at Austin. The survey logged 62% approval and simply 12% disapproval for Paxton amongst these voters, in comparison with 45% approval for Cornyn and 26% disapproval. The legal professional normal was in particularly good standing with voters who recognized as “sturdy Republican,” a bunch that wields outsized clout in Texas’ low-turnout primaries; simply 5% of them mentioned they disapproved of Paxton, in comparison with 18% for Cornyn.
Cornyn has been vocal about Paxton’s authorized troubles over time. In 2022, days earlier than Paxton’s main runoff in opposition to challenger George P. Bush, Cornyn mentioned he was “very disturbed” by Paxton’s then-unresolved indictment on felony securities fraud fees. These fees had been dropped in 2024 in a pretrial settlement that required Paxton to carry out neighborhood service and pay restitution.
“That is the chief legislation enforcement officer of the state of Texas. And it is a supply of embarrassment to me that that has been unresolved,” Cornyn advised reporters on the time.
Katharine Wilson contributed to this report.
Disclosure: College of Texas at Austin and College of Houston have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full checklist of them right here.
This text initially appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/08/ken-paxton-john-cornyn-us-senate-texas-republican-primary/.
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