Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced this week his long-expected 2026 Senate primary challenge against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
Both politicians cast long shadows in the Lone Star State. In his announcement, Paxton characterized the run as bolstering support for President Donald Trump in the Senate.
“We have another great U.S. senator in Ted Cruz. And it’s time we have another great senator that will actually stand up and fight for Republican values, fight for the values of the people of Texas, and also support Donald Trump,” Paxton said in his campaign announcement.
Like the president, Paxton has faced his share of legal troubles. The Texas attorney general was acquitted of 16 impeachment articles in September 2023 regarding his relationship with a real-estate developer.
Paxton will likely criticize Cornyn over the senator’s past skepticism of Trump and his agenda.
In 2018, Cornyn told a group of Texas city officials and business leaders in Weslaco, in the Rio Grande Valley near the southern border, that “a new, giant wall between the United States and Mexico from sea to shining sea makes no sense whatsoever.” Instead, Cornyn proposed the Building America’s Trust Act, which had it become law, would have allocated $15 billion to a variety of defensive barriers including levees and fencing.
Cornyn’s legislation was co-sponsored at the time by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who now serves as the Senate majority whip. The senator from Texas argued at the time that taxpayer money needed to be spent to empower the Border Patrol.
“During [Trump’s] first term, John Cornyn voted with President Trump more than 95% of current senators, securing the votes for his biggest accomplishments as his whip. Democrats are trying to destroy President Trump, and he and Texas need a battle-tested conservative who knows how to protect his agenda in the Senate and won’t be outsmarted by [Senate Democratic leader] Chuck Schumer,” a Cornyn campaign spokesperson told The Daily Signal.
In 2023, in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, the Texas senator expressed the sentiment that the Republican Party should move on from Trump.
“Well, you know in politics, unless you can win an election, you’re pretty much irrelevant,” Cornyn told an interviewer. “And I just think it’s critical that, given the direction of the country now into the Biden administration, that Republicans nominate somebody who can win a general election.”
Cornyn went on to outline his concern that Trump could not expand his support beyond his base.
Cornyn has also been criticized by some Republicans for voting for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was signed into law by then-President Joe Biden. The bill expanded the government’s ability to temporarily revoke a citizen’s right to purchase firearms based on a misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence to “dating relationships.”
Previously, the government could act if the violence involved children, a spouse, or a cohabiting partner, and non-cohabiting partners were excluded. The legislation also made changes to the definition of a licensed firearm dealer and expanded the use of background checks. The bill was opposed by Cornyn’s fellow Texas Republican senator, Ted Cruz, and by the National Shooting Sports Association (NSSA).
“There are several provisions of this legislative package that NSSF [National Shooting Sports Foundation] could support, including providing more resources for mental health services and school security. However, the ambiguity over state records, the lack of clear definitions, and unaddressed due process concerns prevent us from supporting this legislative package as presented,” the president of the firearms industry trade association said at the time.
Cornyn strongly disputed that the bill would harm the Second Amendment.
“We are, after all, talking about a constitutional right. But the goal is to keep guns out of the hands of people with criminal backgrounds and people with mental health problems, which is the current law,” the Texas lawmaker said in an interview.
“This will be a spirited campaign, and we assure Texans they will have a real choice when this race is over,” Cornyn posted on X on after Paxton’s announcement.
