Texas GOP Senate primary heading to Cornyn-Paxton runoff, CBS News projects

CBS News projects Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will advance to a runoff in the Texas Republican Senate primary, with neither clearing 50% of the vote.

Paxton, now in his third term as attorney general, is challenging Cornyn, now serving his fourth term, who has also been in Republican leadership. The GOP’s Senate campaign arm has poured millions into Cornyn’s campaign.

The runoff is scheduled for May. 26. President Trump has not yet endorsed in the primary.

In remarks on Tuesday night, Cornyn and Paxton both continued their attacks on each other.

“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,” Cornyn said. “Judgment Day is coming for Ken Paxton.”

Paxton, meanwhile, accused Cornyn of trying “steal the election with another $100 million going into this Senate race, but here’s what we proved tonight: While the money may be on their side, the people are on our side.”

They had faced GOP Rep. Wesley Hunt in the primary.

By Feb. 23, more than $110 million had been spent on television ads in the record-breaking Senate primary race, according to AdImpact, which monitors ad spending.

Mr. Trump, meanwhile, said he liked all three candidates. The trio appeared with him at a rally in Corpus Christi over last weekend. Mr. Trump endorsed in most of the House races in Texas and several of the state-level races.

The president’s endorsement was no small matter for the candidates, and a February survey from Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs found that 55% of Republican primary voters polled said they’d be more likely to vote for a candidate if that candidate had Mr. Trump’s backing.

Cornyn, 74, has never faced a serious primary challenger, and in 2020, he won more votes in the state than Mr. Trump. Cornyn served as the majority whip during Mr. Trump’s first term and before that, as the GOP conference vice chair and chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm.

Paxton has a strong base of support and is a close ally of the president. The three-term attorney general led the lawsuit in 2020 to contest the election results in four states that former President Joe Biden won. The Supreme Court tossed the case four days after he filed it.

Paxton also spoke at Mr. Trump’s Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6, 2021, at the Ellipse, which occurred hours before thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Paxton falsely blamed antifa for the violence.

During the Biden administration, Paxton was one of the most prolific lawsuit filers among attorneys general — in November 2024, he celebrated his 100th lawsuit against the administration.

Cornyn , meanwhile,has touted his legislative record in pushing Mr. Trump’s agenda as well as his conservative credentials, but Paxton and Hunt have attacked him for his comments during the 2016 election and after the 2020 election.

Cornyn argued that Republicans would face a “Election Day massacre” if Paxton won the primary. The senator has taken a hard-right turn on anti-Muslim sentiment and focused on Paxton’s personal scandals. Paxton, meanwhile, has argued that Cornyn’s support for Mr. Trump is “all fake to win a primary.” Hunt has also attacked Cornyn’s age.

In 2023, Paxton was impeached in a 121-23 vote by the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature on 20 counts, including bribery and abuse of public trust. He was accused of using public money to pay a $3.3 million settlement in a lawsuit brought against four whistleblowers who said they were fired for retaliation.

The state Senate held a trial on 16 of the counts, with conviction on a single count being enough to remove him from office. But a conviction on any of the counts required two-thirds of senators to vote in favor, or at least nine Republicans to cross the aisle. Only two Republicans voted for any of the counts, leaving him far short of conviction, and he remained in office.

Mr. Trump, not in office at the time, congratulated Paxton on his acquittal. Paxton vowed revenge on the Republicans who led the charge to impeach him in the House, and the Republican House speaker at the time, Dade Phelan, barely squeaked by in a primary against a Paxton-backed challenger and left his leadership position. And state Rep. Andrew Murr, chair of the House impeachment board of managers — who gave the opening and closing statements — did not run for reelection.

But the high-profile trial still damaged Paxton. Among the accusations was that Paxton had pressured an associate to hire a woman with whom he was accused of having an affair. The woman was called to testify but it was postponed and never happened for reasons that were never disclosed.

Paxton’s wife, Angela Paxton, was a state senator at the time and was barred from participating but she sat through the trial and was allowed to vote. Although she celebrated the verdict at the time, she filed for divorce in 2025 on what she described as “Biblical grounds.”

“I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation,” she wrote on social media at the time. “But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage. I move forward with complete confidence that God is always working everything together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose.”

In an unrelated case, Paxton was indicted in 2015 by a Collin County, Texas, grand jury on two first-degree felony charges of securities fraud and a third-degree felony charge of failure to register. If convicted, he faced up to 99 years in prison.

Paxton denied any wrongdoing, pleaded not guilty and after nine years, the charges were eventually dismissed in a deal where he agreed to pay restitution and perform community service.