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The race between Cornyn and the scandal-ridden Ken Paxton risks the Senate seat in blood-red Texas falling into the Democrats’ hands
Eric Garcia Washington, DC Wednesday 04 March 2026 04:35 GMT- Bookmark
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Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) will head to a runoff against Texas’s hard-right, scandal-ridden Attorney General Ken Paxton in a race that risks costing Republicans a Senate seat in a state where they haven’t lost one since 1988.
Neither candidate won a majority of the vote on Tuesday due to the late entrance of Houston Rep. Wesley Hunt, meaning the race will go to a runoff on May 26. Late Tuesday, Cornyn led the race in first place, while Paxton was placed in second.
But the race has already become the most expensive Senate primary in history, topping out at $128 million. Cornyn and super PACs aligned with him have spent $71 million to save the four-term incumbent Republican. To boot, President Donald Trump has remained neutral in the race, making Cornyn’s race more difficult.
Cornyn delivered a defiant speech on Tuesday evening saying he would continue to fight Paxton given his history of corruption and baggage.
“I refuse to allow a flawed, self-centered and shameless candidate like Ken Paxton risk everything we've worked so hard to build over these many years.”
open image in gallerySen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) will head into runoff against ultra MAGA Attorney General Ken Paxton (AP)Republicans fear that Paxton’s numerous scandals could cost Republicans the Senate seat. That made Democrats think they had a shot at winning the race. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas went up against state opponent Rep. James Talarico of the Austin area in the Democratic primary, which has yet to be called.
During his concession speech, Hunt did not endorse either Cornyn or Paxton, a sign of how radioactive both men are to different parts of the Republican electorate.
“At the end of the day, I wish the best of luck in this runoff, and then whoever the people choose to go to the general election, they will have my undying support,” he said.
Conservatives in Texas accuse Cornyn, a former attorney general, of being insufficiently supportive of the president. They point to his negotiating a gun control bill signed by former President Joe Biden after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and 2 teachers. In 2023, as Trump prepared to run for president again, Cornyn told reporters that Trump’s “time has passed him by.”
Cornyn also voted to certify the 2020 presidential election results, whereas Paxton sued battleground states in 2020 to challenge the election results, which the Supreme Court threw out.
Paxton has faced a series of scandals, having been under federal indictment almost as soon as he became attorney general in 2014, though the Department of Justice declined to prosecute him. He also agreed to pay $300,00 in restitution to end the charges.
open image in galleryAttorney General Paxton staged an insurgent primary race against Cornyn, winning a large slice of the Republican electorate based on his support for Trump (Getty)But it’s not the only controversy he faces. In 2023, the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives impeached him for corruption, specifically, using his office to benefit a donor named Nate Paul, who at the time faced a federal investigation. The state Senate would later acquit him, but not without spilling a litany of details about his alleged affair.
Paxton’s wife, Angela, a state senator in her own right, would later announce her divorce “on biblical grounds,” because of his supposed philandering.
Cornyn warned that Republicans could lose not just the Senate race, but races lower on the ballot in the state.
“If he were the nominee, Ken Paxton as the nominee would be a dead weight at the top of the ticket for Republicans,” he said. “Over the next 12 weeks, Texas Republican primary voters will hear more about my record of delivering conservative victories in the United States Senate, and learn more about Ken's indefensible personal behavior and failures in office.”
Supporters of Paxton and the attorney general himself have argued that Cornyn’s defiance takes money away from helping Republicans flip Senate seats and protect vulnerable incumbents and open seats in places such as Maine, Alaska and North Carolina.
On the Democratic side, early results showed Talarico had won at least a majority of the vote. But Crockett said voters would likely not know the results because of chaos in Dallas County where a lack of coordination between the two local parties led to people not knowing where to vote.
“Unfortunately, this is what Republicans like to do, and so they specifically targeted Dallas County, and I think we all know why,” Crockett told supporters in Dallas.
Democrats had attempted to keep the polls open until 9:00 p.m., but the Texas Supreme Court put a stay on the legal action.
The race almost certainly will be incredibly expensive. But Cornyn has warned that Paxton being at the top of the ticket could create a disaster for Republicans lower on the ballot and be an “albatross.”
But many Republicans are prepared for Paxton’s arrival. Last week, during Trump’s State of the Union Address, while Cornyn sat in the front rows with other senators, Texas Rep. Troy Nehls invited Paxton as his guest.
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