Sen. John Cornyn’s reelection campaign is sharpening its knives early on in the Texas U.S. Senate primary race and taking a stab at what it sees as Attorney General Ken Paxton’s political warts.
The Cornyn campaign on Wednesday rolled out a “Crooked Ken Paxton” website dedicated to casting the Republican as a corrupt figure, and someone who talks a big MAGA game, but fails to deliver.
The website charges that Mr. Paxton approved grants to “radical” left-wing groups, acted in shady ways to cover up a high-profile extramarital affair, and has relied on a “left-wing” legal team to get him out of trouble.
“Ken Paxton says he is fighting the left, but behind the scenes, he is cutting them checks,” the narrator says in an online ad included in the rollout.
The Cornyn campaign accuses Mr. Paxton’s office of giving millions of tax dollars to far-left groups that oppose border security, help illegal immigrants avoid deportation and support gender affirming care programs for kids as young as seven.
“He could have stopped it,” the narrator says. “He funded it instead.”
The Paxton campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
In April, Mr. Paxton ended speculation about his political plans by announcing on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” that he was running to oust Mr. Cornyn, whom he has cast as part of the Washington establishment that is out of touch with most Americans.
The 62-year-old Mr. Paxton said the Lone Star State deserves a senator with a firmer conservative backbone who will fight for Texas’s values and support President Trump.
The contest could be the most high-profile Republican primary battle in the 2026 election cycle, and it promises to be one of the most expensive primary contests in the country.
Interest in the race intensified this week after Punchbowl News reported that a survey from the Senate Leadership Fund, which is backing Mr. Cornyn, found the incumbent is trailing Mr. Paxton 56% to 40%.
The poll also showed Mr. Cornyn leading former Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, who is considering a bid for the Senate seat, by a 6-point margin. Mr. Paxton is trailing the Democrat by a point.
The poll underscores looming concerns for the GOP that Mr. Paxton could win the primary but struggle to win a general election race, much like MAGA firebrands in previous election cycles.
Democrats have not held a Senate seat in Texas since 1993.
On the other hand, the findings left some wondering whether Mr. Cornyn’s days in the Senate are numbered and whether he would be better off calling it quits to sidestep a possible primary loss.
The 73-year-old Mr. Corney put a damper on that speculation.
“What are you smoking?” he said recently about suggestions he should retire.
Rep. Wesley Hunt, another Trump-inspired Republican, is also mulling a challenge to Mr. Cornyn.
The website the Corny campaign unveiled Tuesday is part of its effort to define Mr. Paxton in the eyes of Texas voters.
Mr. Cornyn, who stylistically is far less of a political rabble-rouser than Mr. Paxton, will also push to remind voters of his conservative, pro-Trump record in Congress.
He recently rolled out a Trump-inspired bill that would make it easier for federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against people who are in the country illegally and convicted of killing American citizens.
The Cornyn camp also says that, by their count, he has voted with Mr. Trump’s agenda 99% of the time, making him among the president’s most loyal allies.
The senator has surrounded himself with Trump-world figures for the race, including pollster Tony Fabrizio and Andy Heming, who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign.
However, Mr. Paxton and the MAGA die-hard crowd say Mr. Cornyn is too far out of step with the Trump-inspired populist movement.
Looking to grab Mr. Trump’s attention, a pro-Paxton group aired an ad in Palm Beach, Florida, this week, casting Mr. Cornyn as a Second Amendment sellout and suggesting he was far too chummy with former President Biden.
It also featured a 2022 social media post in which Mr. Trump accused “RINO Senator John Cornyn of Texas” of helping radical left Democrats to “TAKE YOUR GUNS AWAY.”
