Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton crushed four-term Sen. John Cornyn by more than 27 points in the Republican Senate primary runoff Tuesday, ending the career of one of the chamber's most senior members and delivering the clearest signal yet that Donald Trump's endorsement remains the most decisive force in GOP politics.
Paxton carried roughly 62.5 percent of the vote to Cornyn's 37.5 percent, Fox News Digital reported, with just under 1.4 million ballots tabulated by early Wednesday morning. The margin was not close. It was not a squeaker that required caveats. It was a repudiation, delivered by Republican primary voters in the largest red state in the country, in what has been called the most expensive Senate primary in American history.
Cornyn becomes the first Republican senator from Texas to lose his party's nomination for reelection. He was first elected in 2002. He now joins a growing list of incumbent Republicans who have been shown the door after falling out of step with Trump and the voters who follow his lead.
The race looked different a week ago. In the initial March primary, Cornyn edged Paxton, though neither man cleared the 50 percent threshold required to avoid a runoff. Trump stayed out of that contest. When he finally weighed in, one week before the runoff, the trajectory reversed almost overnight.
Trump endorsed Paxton on social media, calling him "a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate." He was less generous to Cornyn: "John Cornyn is a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough." He labeled the senator "VERY disloyal."
As we noted when Trump's endorsement sent Paxton surging in the polls, the late intervention transformed a competitive race into a rout. Paxton shifted his advertising to target his general election opponent, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, even before the runoff votes were counted.
Paxton made no secret of what the endorsement meant to him. In a post-victory interview with Fox News Digital, he said Trump stood by him when others wouldn't:
"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."
He added plainly: "The president's endorsement is the most valuable endorsement in this country. I'm grateful to have it."
Cornyn tried to run toward Trump in the final stretch. On the eve of the runoff, he told Fox News Digital he had voted with Trump 99.3 percent of the time. "I don't know how much more with him I could be than 99.3% of the time," he said. He noted that Trump had called him "a friend and a good man."
None of it mattered. Cornyn had the backing of Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He had institutional support, decades of seniority, and name recognition across the state. What he did not have was the one thing that counted.
Paxton drew sharp contrasts. He told Fox News Digital that Cornyn "fought Trump on the border" and had opposed the border wall for roughly a decade. He said Cornyn resisted Trump's presidential campaigns in both 2016 and 2024, claiming the senator had said Trump's "time had passed."
"John Cornyn 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."
Cornyn, speaking to reporters in Austin after the race was called, was gracious but not silent about his concerns. He pledged to support the Republican ticket in the general election: "I've always supported the Republican ticket, and I intend to do so again in this general election." But he also warned that Paxton's legal baggage could create problems in November.
The senator had been blunter before the vote, telling Fox News Digital that Paxton had "gotten more and more emboldened as he's gotten away with all the scandal and mischief that now is very well known." He predicted a "very rocky time" if Paxton had to face general election voters and independents.
Paxton's victory did not happen in a vacuum. It followed a string of Trump-backed primary results that have reshaped the Republican Party in a matter of weeks. AP News reported that Cornyn's defeat is the latest sign of Trump's hold on the GOP, noting he is the first Texas Republican senator to lose his party's nomination for reelection.
Three weeks before the Texas runoff, Trump helped purge five Indiana state senators in their primaries. A week and a half before, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who had voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial five and a half years earlier, was ousted by a Trump-backed challenger. As we covered at the time, Cassidy's defeat put Senate Republicans on notice about the cost of crossing the president.
One week before the Texas runoff, Rep. Tom Massie of Kentucky lost his reelection bid after Trump opposed him. The New York Post noted that Paxton's win marked the third major Republican primary result in ten days demonstrating Trump's influence.
Vice President JD Vance offered a clear reading of the trend. Breitbart reported that Vance said Trump's endorsement "sends a message" that lawmakers "have got to serve the people" who sent them to Washington or risk being out of step with voters and the president.
That message has now been received in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Texas. Republican senators watching from Washington can count.
Paxton now faces Talarico, who topped the Democratic primary field in March by defeating Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a vocal Trump critic. Talarico has been described as a rising star in the Democratic Party and has raised $27 million in the first three months of this year, a formidable war chest for a state where no Democrat has won a Senate seat in nearly four decades.
Paxton wasted no time framing the general election fight. He called Talarico "a threat to everything we hold dear in this state and in this country," accusing him of supporting open borders and saying Talarico "even said a welcome mat should be at our southern border."
"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."
The Talarico campaign fired back on social media, posting Paxton's mug shot alongside a litany of accusations: "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."
Paxton's legal history will be central to the Democratic strategy. The Texas House voted to impeach him in 2023, though the Texas State Senate acquitted him of all charges. His wife filed for divorce last year, citing "biblical grounds" and "recent discoveries." Cornyn himself had warned before the vote that an "incredible tsunami of Democratic funds" would pour in against Paxton, predicting the race would be far harder than if the incumbent had survived.
When Trump backed Paxton over Cornyn, some Republican senators did not hide their frustration. Sen. Thom Tillis called Paxton "a failure" and defended Cornyn as one of the Senate's most effective members. That internal friction may linger, but Paxton signaled he wants unity.
"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."
He also praised Cornyn's service directly: "I want to thank John Cornyn for his service to this state. John has dedicated much of his life to serving Texans."
Turnout dropped significantly from the March primary to the runoff. Nearly 2.2 million Republicans voted in March. Just under 1.4 million showed up for the runoff. Cornyn won fewer votes in the runoff than he had in the initial primary, a sign that his coalition shrank while Paxton's held or grew.
Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority. Texas remains a right-leaning state, and no Democrat has won statewide in nearly 40 years. But Newsmax reported that the result is likely to intensify concerns among traditional Republicans about the shrinking political space for GOP officeholders perceived as insufficiently aligned with Trump. Whether those concerns translate into general election vulnerability is the open question heading into November.
Paxton said he plans to make the race a referendum on Talarico's record. "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," he said. "The only way where they can know what he's really about is to let people know what he said."
Cornyn, for his part, offered a closing note that sounded less like surrender than like a man who had made peace with the outcome. "I 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."
He fought. He lost. And the Republican Party in Texas now belongs to the voters who answered Trump's call, not the senators who thought seniority alone could hold the line.