Texas GOP Senate Primary Runoff: Trump-Backed Ken Paxton Destroys John Cornyn
The race is also another test regarding President Donald Trump’s influence.
Texas voters head to the polls today to choose between Republican John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton for the GOP Senate nomination.
The polls close at 7 PM CT.
Cornyn is GONE
54% of the votes are in but it’s obvious that Paxton will face off against James Talarico in November.
At 8:55 PM ET, Paxton has 63% of the vote compared to Cornyn’s 37%, according to The New York Times.
WOW.
JUST IN: The Associated Press PROJECTS that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will DEFEAT incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas GOP Senate primary runoff.
A RINO BL00DBATH! pic.twitter.com/9BH9k0P6lW
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) May 27, 2026
Cornyn’s election night gathering consists of a handful of people, mostly from the media. Therefore, I cannot call it a party.
Media assembling at election night HQ for Sen. John Cornyn about 20 minutes before the polls close. pic.twitter.com/T1wl1BiBqE
— John C. Moritz (@JohnnieMo) May 26, 2026
Democrats have not held a Texas Senate seat in 30 years. I don’t know why they think it will happen now since Talarico is a far-left progressive.
“A state President Trump won by nearly 14 points isn’t going to elect James Talarico — a radical leftist who thinks God is nonbinary and that Texas should be a welcome mat for illegals,” NRSC Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell said, according to Fox News. “He is the most dangerous flank of the far left. Texas isn’t swapping brisket for open borders.”
You also cannot blame the Jews in this case as many did after Trump-backed Ed Gallrein defeated Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) last week.
Update 8:45 PM ET
Rep. Christian Menefee demolished Rep. Al Green (D-TX) in the primary for the 18th Congressional District.
Holy moly. Menefee won 68.6% to 31.4%.
Texas’s redrawn Congressional map made Green’s 9th District GOP-friendly. So Green did what every career politician did.
Green decided to run in a Democratic safe seat in the 18th District.
Yeah, that didn’t work too well, did it?
In an incumbent vs incumbent race, 1st term Texas Rep. Christian Menefee defeats 11th term Rep. Al Green in tonight's redrawn Houston area #TX18 Democratic primary runoff election per AP. @cspan pic.twitter.com/8EGr5lEg2R
— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) May 27, 2026
Original Reporting
The primary led to a runoff since Cornyn received only 43.1% of the vote compared to Paxton’s 40%.
The winner needed 50% or more.
Cornyn has been in the Senate since 2002.
The race is also another test regarding President Donald Trump’s influence.
Trump refused to endorse a candidate prior to the primary.
After the primary, Trump insisted he would endorse someone while encouraging the other person to drop out.
The endorsement for Paxton came on May 19, with Trump calling him “a true MAGA warrior.”
The winner will face Democrat James Talarico. The Democrats fantasize about snatching a Texas Senate seat, feeling 2026 could be their year.
For some reason, Talarico leads in most general election polling, but not by much.
Maybe that will cool off once the GOP has a set candidate.
The Cook Political Report rated the Senate race as Likely Republican but said it would make it official if Paxton wins the nomination.
“Democrats maintain that they could make this race competitive even if Sen. John Cornyn emerges as the nominee, but we’re skeptical of that argument,” the organization wrote in its race summary.
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Comments
Get in loser. Were making America (and Israel and Iran and the world) great again
Thank you for posting about this shockingly rare opportunity to unload a RINO GOPe backstabbing piece of human garbage!
Ken Paxton all the Way!
I’m not surprised that Cornyn lost but am surprised by how much. Last polls had Paxton up 10, I thought it might be 6 or 8. It’s also interesting just how much theater kid Green got pummeled by. We are seeing what redistricting means in real time as politicians that are not popular are forced to actually compete for a seat. Al Green, Ghetto Barbie are gone.
Trump endorsed late after Paxton was way ahead in the polls. Trump wants to back a winner and expects Paxton to win.
No Cornyn and Thune did nothing to pass the Safe act
Of Cornyn had stuck around DC and bent arms , Paxton would not have gotten Trump’s support
It was the final straw
Embrace the power of “and” — these things are mutually related.
No. When Trump endorsed Paxton, Paxton was ahead 3-4 pts not “way ahead”. No need to lie and try to diminish what Trumps endorsement meant to Paxton.
In fairness Trump did not endorse until a week or so prior to the run off. He didn’t endorse in the regular primary.
Trump’s endorsement is clearly beneficial to candidates. No question. However, prior to this year Trump has been prone to withhold his endorsement in competitive races, particularly in State wide contests. Again this year he’s breaking that pattern and showing the value of his endorsement, no question about it, but much of the ‘magic’ of his endorsement in prior election cycles was from running up the score with a clearly superior candidate or in CD with a strong lean to GoP/MAGA while his Senate/Statewide endorsement track record was not bullet proof Examples, in Georgia Warnock and Ossoff have overcome the Trump candidate multiple times. DR OZ for Senate and Mastriano for Gov in PA.
No way the pervert Talarico wins
That little pervert was my congressman for one term, then got redistricted out, ran to Austin and they gave him an easy Democrat area.
I called his office when he was my representative, got in a huge fight with his office manger over , first her pronoun usage, then his trans support and support of x rated books in grade school
He’s a real piece of crap
I agree that Talarico is a greasy kook, but he needs to be taken seriously, as a candidate. Complacency is dangerous, even in a “red” state, such as Texas.
Yep. Gotta go vote and bring folks with you. Sitting this one out b/c ‘everyone’ else is gonna vote for Paxton/against Talarico is a recipe for disaster.
Being a “real piece of crap” has never stopped a Democrat from being elected, even a t**d as big as Talarico. Beware the Democrap candidates, always.
I expect Cornyn to immediately switch parties if he loses.
If he does it will show his true colors. If he does it there will be a story here on LI on which it can be commented about.
Your about to find out. I expect Cornyn, now that he got a massive beat down to oppose everything Trump wants in a fit of spite. Look for him to suddenly be the next Tom Tillis.
As always, don’t listen to what people say, look at how they act.
And literally EVERYBODY in the RINO camp is acting like Cornyn has already lost.
They know it, we know it, that’s why they threw a tantrum over the Trump endorsement.
Over at Townhall, it has been reported that more than 103,000 more people voted in the runoff election than in the March primary. Since we have open primaries here in Texas, if one has not voted previously they can vote in the runoffs. I wonder how many Democrats came out to vote for Cornyn? But it could be with all of the negative ads by Cornyn against Paxton, quite a few Republican voters came out to defeat Paxton.
I will be voting Republican no matter who for the Senate seat as Talarico is a nut job far-left lying Democrat. My preference is Paxton since he is a strong Conservative voice; we are not voting for a new pastor.
At 10 minutes after most of the polls closing nbcnews.com has Paxton at 60.3% of votes counted.
Gonna win fur shure.
I understand Cornyn us demanding a recount.
You’re joking!
Golly! You caught me! Guilty as charged!
-chuckle-
Grizz has a great sense of humor!!
I checked a few minutes ago and Paxton was up over 180,000 votes. Unless there is some major Fulton County type shenanigans Paxton is going to be the nominee.
“But, but…! Fulton County is in Georgia!” AOC was alleged to have said.
Yep, but plenty of corrupt Dem local leaders in Travis, Harris and Dallas County Texas.
In fact, the Georgia Democrats and GOPe allies in 2020 were pikers compared to the Dems in Texas when LBJ had a courthouse burned down to seal his election theft.
But we’ve got “The Gap”, Stacy Abrams, to steal elections.
See: Ossoff and Warnock
Someone doesn’t care for your style of humor. That’s funny, but then I have been accused of having a weird sense of humor.
Fully expect this race to be called before dinner time.
It’s not close or competitive and everybody knows it.
It’s been called
We got a new Senator in Texas!!!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/05/breaking-ken-paxton-crushes-cornyn-first-early-vote/
Huh. I had expected the Paxton-Cornyn race to end up in the 54%-46% range, but this was a lopsided drubbing.
I don’t know why you thought that.
Cornyn spent $70 million to only get to 42% in the primary.
Exactly as predicted, called basically as soon as the polls closed.
That’s why the rest of the RINO crew threw their tantrum last week.
Even without Trump’s endorsement, Paxton was winning, with it, it wasn’t even close.
Cornyn’s time had come. How many terms are these people supposed to have? Now the sweating can begin with Talarico. Like Platner from the other direction, this guy is very creepy. What other extremists will be coming out of the Democratic woodwork?
It will be interesting to watch how Dems try to repackage Talarico and his bizarre social media/live media comments as there are so many of them. “There are 6 genders” “God is non binary” “God supports abortion” and so on. He is a nut who is worse than Ghetto Barbie and there is no way to hide it.
betting dems voted paxton in as he would be easier to beat then cornyn
dont let that talirico pos win!!!!
Oh dear God your delusional if you believe caloric the trans imp is going to beat Paxton
hillarys team said the same about trump in 2016
Hopefully this signals how much We the People are done with elected officials who are not America First. Not even talking about MAGA, but the sentiment seems to be “stop sending our tax dollars all over the world for idiotic causes.” The money laundering/gravy train is coming to an end.
I truly hope you are right.
Well Senator Thune, how’re you feeling today? Are you going to throw another tantrum? Or are you going to do what’s right and pass the SAVE Act? I’m thinking tantrum…RINO has to RINO
Well done, TX! That quisling, Lankford, is on the clock now.
It’s interesting reading some of the comments and watching the websites this morning. Most seem to be mistaking running in a general election in other states vs Texas. Paxton has won several statewide elections so he must have some backing. Talarico is well out of step with Texas voters. Name one block outside of college educated Karens that will support him and his views? He will get Austin, maybe, and some votes out of Dallas/Houston but where else? Blacks are not in on God supports abortion, legal hispanics are not in support of open borders, no one in in favor of 6 genders and men in womens sports or locker rooms. I think Talarico might be able to bring it home in Mass but in Texas? That’s going to be a very big lift.
For some reason, Talarico leads in most general election polling, but not by much.
To answer your question, the 4th Estate pushes push polls this early, trying to depress GOP turnout. A radical like Talarico will not get 45% in a general election.
Yeah, assuming folks show up as normal for midterm he might get 45% at the outside. Though Beto got 48% ish in 2018 midterm for Senate. Talarico is weirder, worse fit on TX cultural values than Beto. Six genders? Tranny nonsense? Oddball ‘theology’….much of that won’t play well with many TX d/prog outside Austin and bored Dallas/Houston housewife AWFLs.
Cornyn has been a “dead man walking” in Texas for four years. He was a pretty good Texas AG, and his first years as a senator were OK, but then he contracted a bad case of Beltwayitis which has only gotten worse over time. His sellouts during the Autopen administration sealed his fate years ago.
It has been open season on RINO’s in Texas since 2022 (note the bloodbath suffered by members of the Strauss/Bonnen/Phelan RINO faction of the Texas House after they went after Ken Paxton and opposed school choice), and Cornyn pretty much defines a Texas RINO. He is the last of the old Bush era Texas GOPe squishes of any major consequence. (OK, Greg Abbott also used to be part of that, but he got the message several years ago and has since given the base what it demanded.)
Everyone in the state knew Cornyn was going down, That he got crushed by 25 points after outspending Paxton 9-1 just confirms it.
Hopefully, this will be an object lesson to Thune and the other GOP squishes in the Senate. But in the short term, I strongly suspect Cornyn will consider pulling an Arlen Spector move. Perhaps Trump will offer him a nice Ambassador or other cushy post to keep him onside for the rest of his term.
If Cornyn were wise he would use his political capital to get a job as a University President at one of the wealthy Texas schools. He would fit right in with the culture and his main job would be to make the big donors happy and keep their checks coming.
It’s all well and good that Ken Paxton beat the snot out of Cornyn, but y’all are overlooking the most positive news of this story:
AL GREEN LOST HIS SEAT!
Now he can go impeach Trump and demand reparations at the retirement home and leave the rest of us alone!
*snoopy dance*
The concession speech was hilarious. Cornyn’s wife was standing next to him WITH HER PURSE ON HER SHOULDER. The whole tableau said, “Hurry up, we can still make it to Cracker Barrel before they close.”
Over at the N.Y. Times, the comments are hilariously wrong about Paxton. Nothing but how Paxton is a criminal and an adulterer, and MAGA loves criminals and adulterers. They actually have no clue about all the great work General Ken Paxton has done as Texas Attorney General! Clueless! They think we are all just following Trump like he’s the Pied Piper!
Tough choice for Texans.
Ethically challenged crook or raving lefty soy boy?
How about, “no”?
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