MAGA triumph: Trump ally Ken Paxton defeats John Cornyn in bitter Texas GOP primary war

PLANO, TX – President Donald Trump and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton are the big winners in the Lone Star State's bitter Republican Senate primary battle, which has spanned for more than a year and became the most expensive Senate primary in history.

Paxton, who was endorsed by Trump just one week ago, convincingly defeated longtime GOP Sen. John Cornyn in Tuesday's runoff election for the Republican nomination.

Paxton now faces off against state Rep. James Talarico — a rising star in the Democratic Party — in the general election in a race that is among a handful that may decide if the Republicans hold their slim 53-47 majority in the Senate. Talarico, who topped progressive star Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a vocal Trump critic, in the March primary, is trying to become the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate election in Texas.

Cornyn, speaking to reporters after the race was called, said, "I've always supported the Republican ticket, and I intend to do so again in this general election."

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Paxton, in his victory speech, delivered an olive branch to the senator and his supporters.

"I want to thank John Cornyn for his service to this state. John has dedicated much of his life to serving Texans. He’s worked diligently for years to help Texas and for that spirit of service to the Lone Star State and our nation, I’m very grateful," Paxton said.

And Paxton, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital moments after he left the stage, said, "We need to come together as a Republican Party. I think John Cornyn will be a part of that. I think his voters will be too."

Trump targeted Cornyn as "VERY disloyal" as he backed Paxton, a major Trump ally and MAGA firebrand, in the final days of the runoff campaign. The ballot-box showdown in right-leaning Texas served as the latest test of Trump's immense grip over the Republican Party and the strength of his endorsements in GOP nomination races.

The runoff election was held three weeks after Trump's purging of five state senators in Indiana's primary who had opposed his push for congressional redistricting, a week and a half after the president helped to oust Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — who, five and a half years ago, voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial — and one week after Trump was instrumental in sending vocal GOP critic Rep. Tom Massie of Kentucky down to defeat in his re-election bid.

After sitting on the sidelines for months, Trump last Tuesday backed Paxton.

"Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate," Trump wrote in a social media post last Tuesday.

Paxton, pointing to Trump, told supporters that "when everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and abandon the people of Texas, he didn’t listen. Instead, President Trump gave me his complete and total endorsement."

And Paxton told Fox News Digital after his victory that "the president's endorsement is the most valuable endorsement in this country. I'm grateful to have it."

Paxton on Tuesday night quickly turned his fire on Talarico, charging in his speech that "James Talarico is a threat to everything we hold dear in this state and in this country. He's a threat to our security and our safety. He wants open borders and even said a welcome mat should be at our southern border."

And he told Fox News Digital that "James Talarico doesn't belong in Texas. We cannot let him be the center of the state of Texas. He fits in California, he does not fit here."

Looking to the general election showdown, Paxton said, "I think we're going to try to highlight what he actually believes, because the people of Texas need to know what his views are, and whether they are going to support those views. The only way where they can know what he's really about is to let people know what he said."

Paxton has faced a slew of scandals and legal problems that have battered him over the past decade. In 2023, the Texas House of Representatives voted to impeach Paxton, but he was eventually acquitted of all charges by the state Senate.

And Paxton is dealing with a very messy divorce, with his wife citing "biblical grounds" based on "recent discoveries" in filing last year to end their marriage.

Talarico's campaign, posting a mug shot of Paxton on social media, noted: "He was indicted on 3 felony counts for investment fraud. He was reported to the FBI by his own staff for bribery. He was impeached by his own party for corruption."

"Now he’s the Republican nominee for US Senate in Texas. Together we will stop him," the Talarico campaign vowed.

The two heated rivals topped a crowded field of contenders in the early March primary, with Cornyn edging Paxton. But since neither cleared the 50% threshold, the nomination race headed into overtime.

Trump, in backing Paxton, said that "John Cornyn is a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough."

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Pointing to the senator's past criticism of him, Trump added, "John was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination, and then, the Presidency."

Cornyn, in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the runoff, emphasized his support for the president and his agenda.

"President Trump has called me a friend and a good man, and we've worked with him closely for both terms of office," the senator said.

Paxton, who grabbed significant national attention the past dozen years by filing lawsuits against the Obama and Biden administrations, disagreed.

"John Cornyn fought Trump on the border. And you can go back over about a decade and see that he was not for the border wall," Paxton charged in an interview on Fox News' "The Big Weekend Show."

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Paxton also argued that the senator "fought the president's re-election. He fought him in 2024, said his time had passed, and he fought him in 2016. So this is not a pro-Trump guy. I don't know if we could be more different on the Republican issues than John Cornyn and me. So there is a vast difference between the two of us."

Cornyn pushed back.

"I don't know how much more with him I could be than 99.3% of the time," the senator told Fox News Digital.

"I want him to be successful. I want America to be successful, and I want Republicans to be successful. But you know, in the end, as I said, Texans are the only ones going to be able to make a choice, and I think Texans can be pretty independent," Cornyn added.

Cornyn, who was supported by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, repeatedly argued that if Paxton was the GOP's nominee, the party would be forced to spend millions of dollars to keep the seat from flipping and that Republicans down-ballot will suffer.

"He's gotten more and more emboldened as he's gotten away with all the scandal and mischief that now is very well known, but were he to be the nominee and be exposed to general election voters, especially independents, I think it's going to be a very rocky time," the senator predicted.

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And pointing to Talarico, who hauled in an eye-popping $27 million in fundraising during the first three months of this year, Cornyn said, "There will be an incredible tsunami of Democratic funds coming in against Paxton, were he the nominee. Conversely... if I am the nominee... we'll be able to shoulder the burden pretty much on our own. I won my last general election by 10 points. I think I can do similarly against somebody who's as far left and radical as James Talarico."

While Paxton shifted his ads to target Talarico in the wake of the Trump endorsement, Cornyn and allied groups continued to blast Paxton.

"I don't think anybody could honestly argue that we haven't fought hard to make the case here," Cornyn said of his campaign.

And he emphatically said he had "worked too long and too hard to help build the Republican Party in Texas, and in the United States Senate, and to keep Texas the envy of the nation when it comes to opportunities and pursuing the American dream, to let that go, to squander it, and let it go without a fight."

Fox News' Luke Trevisan and Philp Bodinet contributed to this story