Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton easily defeated four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn Tuesday in a vicious and expensive runoff election punctuated by a last-minute endorsement from President Trump.
Mr. Paxton, a Trump loyalist and “MAGA warrior,” was already favored to prevail over Mr. Cornyn when Mr. Trump supercharged his chances of victory by endorsing him on May 19.
With 48% of the vote counted, Mr. Paxton had a 25-point edge in the two-man runoff, leading the incumbent by 62.5% to 37.5%.
Multiple news organizations called the race just minutes after the last polls closed in the state just after 9 p.m. EDT.
Mr. Paxton will now face off in November against Democrat James Talarico, a state lawmaker, for the U.S. Senate seat that Mr. Cornyn has occupied since 2002.
