Texas Republicans nominate Ken Paxton for Senate seat, ousting incumbent John Cornyn

Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton speaks to supporters at a watch party on March 3 in Dallas. Paxton beat incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a runoff for the nomination, setting up a tough fight in November against Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico. Sergio Flores/Getty Images hide caption

Texas Republicans nominated scandal-plagued state Attorney General Ken Paxton in their U.S. Senate primary following an endorsement from President Trump, unseating Sen. John Cornyn, a pillar of the party's establishment wing.

Republicans spent $100 million in what became the most expensive primary in Senate history. Cornyn, 74, and Paxton, 63, made it to Tuesday's runoff after each failed to garner a majority of votes in the state's March primary.

Polling and political analysts suggested the race was already tilting in Paxton's favor in recent weeks, and Trump's endorsement put Cornyn's bid for a fifth term on life support. Trump endorsed the MAGA loyalist last week while early voting was underway, energizing Paxton supporters.

"Whenever I'm around him, good things happen," Paxton told voters in Katy, Texas the day after the endorsement. "Good things happen to me and good things happen for Texas. So I love Donald Trump."

Democrats hope this seat — and the Senate majority more broadly — could be attainable thanks to the divisions among Republicans in this race. Paxton's victory also reaffirms Trump's grip on the Republican party despite his falling poll numbers and other political upheaval.

A Democrat has not been elected statewide here since 1994. The party nominated state Rep. James Talarico in the first round of primaries in March, averting the May runoff. The party has argued a blue wave could take back control in Congress as Trump administration policies face backlash for rising prices, the Iran war and more.

Paxton came to the race with legal and personal baggage. Since he became a state official more than ten years ago, he's fended off criminal indictments , whistleblower allegations and an impeachment by the Texas House. He was acquitted in the Texas Senate. His estranged wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce last summer on "biblical grounds."

But Paxton supporters saw much of those battles as a sign that Paxton, like Trump, was a fighter. They argued Cornyn betrayed Republicans by working with Democrats on bipartisan gun legislation after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. They also said he should have helped end the Senate filibuster to clear the way for the Trump-backed SAVE Act to install new voting restrictions.

Cornyn said the race exposed a crack in the red wall of the reliable Republican state. His supporters felt betrayed by the Trump endorsement, and shared his alarm that a Paxton nomination could alienate voters in the general election.

"I've always believed in the politics of addition, not subtraction," Cornyn told NPR from a North Texas campaign stop last week. "And that's what's allowed us to build the Republican Party in Texas and across the nation. And I don't think we should turn our backs on that."

Even after Trump's Paxton endorsement blindsided national Republicans, Cornyn's campaign continued full steam ahead.

Cornyn, who was once considered a contender for Senate majority leader, began his political career as state district judge in the 1980s. He later won election to the state's Supreme Court and became Texas attorney general in the late 1990s. He won his first U.S. Senate seat in 2002, becoming Senate majority whip about a decade later. The current majority leader, John Thune, R-S.D., took over that role in 2019.

During his career, Cornyn was known as a moderate who helped build the state and national party's establishment wing. With Trump's election, he moved to his right and largely aligned with the president. However, his bipartisan work alarmed MAGA supporters.

Despite this, he made it clear that Paxton was a threat to the party, fueling his decision to run.

"Look, if there were some honorable person … who would do a good job, it would be far different," Cornyn told NPR. But Ken Paxton is "unrepentant for all the scandals he's been involved in and who doesn't really care about anything else other than himself."

Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said it could be difficult for Republicans to unite after airing their dirty laundry in Texas.

"The stain of the fight has left a lasting problem for unity among Republicans," Rottinghaus said. "There's a concern among Republicans that the rank and file are either abandoning the party by voting for Democrats … to switch an election or they're simply not participating. If either of those things happen, then it's a real liability for Republicans trying to get unity going forward in November."