Paxton Topples Cornyn in Texas Senate Runoff, Ending a 24-Year Era for the GOP Stalwart

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton routed Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary runoff for U.S. Senate, ending more than two decades of Cornyn's electoral dominance and delivering a crushing blow to the Texas GOP's old guard.

Paxton won the May 26 runoff with about 64% of the vote to Cornyn's 36%, a margin of roughly 28 percentage points. The victory makes Cornyn — first elected to the Senate in 2002 — the first Republican senator from Texas to lose his party's nomination for reelection in modern memory.

The result capped a bitter, expensive primary fight that exposed deep fault lines within the Texas Republican Party. Paxton, a combative figure beloved by the party's MAGA base, campaigned as a Washington outsider willing to fight, while Cornyn leaned on his seniority and fundraising network. The race tilted decisively after President Donald Trump issued an eleventh-hour endorsement of Paxton, who has cast himself as the president's most loyal ally in state government.

"It's the end of an era," one Texas Republican operative said of Cornyn's defeat. Cornyn, who had served as Senate majority whip and was once considered a contender for party leader, conceded on election night, telling supporters the result reflected the direction of today's GOP.

The outcome sets up a general election matchup between Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico of Austin, a former teacher and rising party star. Some national Republicans have privately fretted that Paxton — who was impeached by the Texas House in 2023 on corruption allegations before being acquitted by the state Senate, and who spent years under indictment on securities-fraud charges — could put a normally safe seat at risk in an increasingly competitive Texas.

Democrats, who have not won a statewide race in Texas since 1994, see the nomination of the polarizing attorney general as their best opening in a generation. Cornyn himself warned during the campaign that Paxton's nomination could hand the seat to Democrats. National party committees on both sides are now expected to pour money into the contest, which will be among the most closely watched of the 2026 midterms.