Ken Paxton beats John Cornyn in Texas GOP runoff

Ken Paxton won Tuesday’s Texas GOP Senate runoff over Senator John Cornyn, a four-term incumbent, giving President Donald Trump another primary victory in Texas and setting up a November race against Democrat James Talarico.

The result ended Cornyn’s long Senate run and handed Texas Republicans a nominee who campaigned as the candidate closest to Trump’s base. It also capped one of the party’s most expensive intramural fights and offered a fresh measure of Trump’s reach with GOP primary voters in a major statewide contest.

The Associated Press called the race for Paxton by 8 p.m., according to The Texas Tribune. Cornyn, 74, went into the runoff with decades of Senate seniority and support in Washington, and he had long been one of the state’s most durable Republicans. Paxton, 63, ran against that establishment record and argued he was better aligned with Trump and the party base.

NPR reported that the Republican Senate primary cost roughly $100 million. That level of spending turned the runoff into a national proxy fight over the direction of the Republican Party in Texas, drawing outside donors and attention well beyond the state.

At his watch party, Paxton credited Trump with helping push him over the line, telling NPR:

“Whenever I’m around him, good things happen… So I love Donald Trump.”

— Ken Paxton, NPR

November race takes shape

Cornyn used his concession speech to stick with the argument he had made throughout the race. He told NPR:

“I’ve always believed in the politics of addition, not subtraction.”

— John Cornyn, NPR

The loss leaves Republicans with a nominee shaped by a bruising primary rather than an incumbent with years of statewide wins behind him. It also gives Talarico a different target for November in a state where Democrats have not won statewide since 1994.

For Republicans in Washington, the result is another sign that Trump’s endorsement can outweigh seniority and establishment standing in a primary. The late backing Trump gave Paxton now stands as one more example of the president’s sway with core GOP voters.

The runoff’s cost and bitterness are also likely to carry into the general election. National Democrats had already pointed to the seat as worth contesting, and Republicans now have to unify after a fight that became a test of who best represented the party base.

Paxton’s next challenge is broader than the electorate that carried him on Tuesday. He must shift from a Republican runoff to a statewide campaign against Talarico, with both parties expected to keep money and attention on Texas through November.