AUSTIN, Texas — A supercharged U.S. Senate GOP primary in Texas between Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton is kicking off with personal attacks and expectations of a high-spending race in a year when Senate Republicans will be defending key seats and targeting others in 2026.
''We're going to end up spending hundreds of millions of dollars potentially on this race in Texas because we can't lose the seat in Texas, and that is money that can't be used in places like Michigan, New Hampshire and Georgia," Cornyn told reporters Wednesday.
He went on to call Paxton a ''conman and a fraud" in remarks that set the stage for a bitter campaign in the months ahead. The feud is not new: Cornyn, who lost a bid for Senate majority leader last year, is among the few prominent Republicans who has criticized Paxton over legal troubles that once threatened the career of Texas' top law enforcement official.
Paxton, a close ally of President Donald Trump who was first elected to the Texas statehouse in 2002, is starting his campaign by framing himself an outsider and telling voters on his website that he will take on ''career politicians'' in Washington. Among Paxton's recurring criticisms of Cornyn — who has served in Congress since 2002 — was the senator's support of a bipartisan gun control bill after the 2022 elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which a teenage gunman killed 19 students and two teachers.
Looming over the race is if Trump will make an endorsement. Paxton said Wednesday he doesn't expect the president to weigh in until closer to election day.
''I would certainly love to have President Trump's endorsement. I think I would be the death knell to John Cornyn,'' he said in an interview on The Mark Davis Show.
Paxton has built a loyal following within the Texas GOP's hard right that supported him during a historic Republican-led impeachment in 2023 over accusations of corruption and bribery. Trump at the time slammed the proceedings and Paxton was later acquitted in the Texas Senate.
Statewide campaigns in Texas are already among the most expensive in the country. Last year, Republicans spent $87 million helping defend Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in his race against Democrat Colin Allred, including $75 million from a super PAC supporting Cruz, according to Federal Elections Commission filings.
