Ken Paxton attacks Cornyn as Texas runoff voting begins
Ken Paxton opened the Texas U.S. Senate runoff with a direct attack on John Cornyn during a speech to supporters in North Texas on Monday, as early voting began for the Republican contest. The race is drawing attention because it will decide which Republican advances in a Senate campaign that has been described as the most expensive in history.
Cornyn, the incumbent senator, is seeking a fifth term and has never lost an election. Paxton, the Texas attorney general, is trying to overtake him after Cornyn had more votes than Paxton when the March primary ballots were counted.
Paxton targets Cornyn
Paxton told supporters that Cornyn was not loyal to Donald Trump and pointed to his past criticism of the president. “He's not a big Donald Trump fan. He’s been, he was, he said he should not be reelected. That he likely should go to jail. He didn’t. He was not supportive in any of the election stuff. He fought him in 2016 on his first election, saying it was an albatross around our necks. What happened to John Cornyn that changed his position a year ago? Does anybody know? I got in the race and now all of a sudden, John Cornyn has spent $100 million talking about how much he loves Donald Trump,” Paxton said.
Paxton also said Cornyn “was not supportive in any of the election stuff.” He did not talk to reporters in North Texas on Monday.
Cornyn answers in North Texas
Cornyn used a campaign event in North Texas to argue that his reelection bid depends on repeating his record to voters. “Well, you got to tell the story and that’s what campaigns are all about. And when you run every six years, we got a lot of people moving into the state that don’t know about our recipe for success, the Texas model of success. And so, you got to tell the stories and so that’s like I said, campaigns are all about sometimes, you know, just got to remind people of what they already knew,” Cornyn said to 4’s Steven Dial.
Both men are trying to present themselves as the Republican candidate most aligned with Trump. Trump has said good things about both candidates but has not made an endorsement despite a promise to do so.
Trump’s role in the runoff
The Trump question has become central because Cornyn and Paxton are each trying to claim support from the same president. Matthew Wilson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University, said Cornyn faces a different problem from Bill Cassidy, the Republican senator who lost his primary in Louisiana over the weekend to a Trump-endorsed challenger.
“Cassidy, in voting to impeach Donald Trump, made himself persona non grata in MAGA world in a way that John Cornyn simply didn't. And so, Cassidy had much more serious problems to face from the Trump base than John Coronyn does. President Trump has actually said some good things about John Cornyn. He has appeared with John Cornyn. He has praised John Cornyn. He never did that for Bill Cassidy,” Wilson said.
With early voting underway this week, the race now turns on which Republican voters respond more to Cornyn’s long record in office or Paxton’s challenge to it. The runoff will settle that choice for the party, and the winner moves deeper into a Senate contest already defined by money, loyalty and Trump’s standing in the state.
