Trump endorses Ken Paxton in Texas GOP primary, boosting his challenge to incumbent Sen. Cornyn

ALLEN, Texas (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, supercharging his effort to oust incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in next week’s runoff.

“Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on social media.

News of the endorsement broke during a Paxton campaign event, drawing cheers from supporters who began dancing to “YMCA,” a Trump campaign anthem.

“I have so much respect for the president and appreciate so much his endorsement,” Paxton said at the event in Allen, Texas.

Paxton and Cornyn advanced to a May 26 runoff after finishing as the top vote-getters in a March 3 primary in which no candidate won a majority. Early voting started Monday and continues through Friday.

Trump’s endorsement is the latest of several he has handed out in Republican primaries in an attempt to cull the GOP of those who’ve opposed him. Recent successes have emboldened Trump, including the defeats of Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana and Indiana state senators who opposed him on redistricting.

He also picked and endorsed a challenger to Kentucky U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie in Tuesday’s primary. Massie’s push to release the Epstein files and his vocal opposition to the Iran war have grated on Trump, whose support for Ed Gallrein is making this reelection campaign Massie’s most challenging yet.

Although the four-term Cornyn has backed Trump’s agenda in Washington, Paxton pitched himself as a political warrior for the Make America Great Again movement. Trump’s endorsement puts him at odds with his party’s establishment, which is convinced that Cornyn is the better candidate for November’s general election. The Republican nominee will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.

In a post on X after Trump’s endorsement, Cornyn emphasized his closeness to Trump, saying he voted with him “99% of the time” and that the president has “consistently called me a friend in this race.”

Cornyn then leaned into an argument he’s repeated on the campaign trail: that in November’s general election against Talarico, Paxton will be “a weak nominee who jeopardizes everything we care about.”

Talarico said in a statement that “it doesn’t matter who wins this runoff. We already know who we’re running against: the billionaire megadonors and their corrupt political system.”

Trump, in his social media post, said Cornyn was “a good man,” but “he was not supportive of me when times were tough.” He complained that “John was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination.”

The runoff between Cornyn and Paxton has been a bitter and expensive battle for the future of the Republican Party, and one that was diverting resources from other competitive races elsewhere in the country.

Cornyn’s campaign organizations and allied super PACs have been vastly outspending Paxton on advertising since last year, the overwhelming majority of which has been dedicated to attacking Paxton. This week, Cornyn’s campaign and groups supporting it will have spent more than $87 million on advertising, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, including more than $18.5 million since the March 3 primary.

Paxton’s campaign groups and a single super PAC have spent a fraction of what pro-Cornyn groups have, combining to spend a total of $9.2 million on advertising, about $4.9 million since the primary election on March 3.

Senate Republicans left a luncheon lamenting Trump’s decision and its implications for Cornyn. GOP leaders have worried publicly that Republicans will have to spend millions more in a general election if Paxton is the nominee.

“I’m sad, I’m actually sad,” said Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis, adding that she believed Cornyn had a better chance of winning the general election.

“Now it’ll just cost us a fortune,” she said.

The endorsement excited supporters at Paxton’s event on Tuesday. Caroline Zadeh said it was an “awesome thing” and that she trusts “Trump to do the right thing.”

“We’ve had Cornyn in the office for quite a while,” she said of her frustrations with the senator, and “a lot of controversy between him and Trump’s administration.” In the other camp, Bennie Newman, 84, said he voted for Cornyn on Tuesday before hearing of the endorsement, which came as “a surprise” and “a disappointment.”

Newman supports Trump, but he still would’ve voted for Cornyn because he “has almost been impeccable in terms of his reputation,” he said. Referencing some of Paxton’s scandals, he said that the attorney general would be a weaker candidate against Talarico in November’s general election.

Trump has had an at-times cool relationship with Cornyn, notably after the senator suggested in 2023 that Trump could not win the presidency again in 2024 and that his “time has passed him by.”

Cornyn also was an early critic of Trump’s plan for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico — a project he now supports.

A former state attorney general and state Supreme Court judge, Cornyn was first elected to statewide office 36 years ago. His understated style and judge’s temperament contrast with the fiery rhetoric of Trump and his Make America Great Again movement.

Cornyn has had support from Senate Republican leadership, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who warned that “it is a strong possibility we cannot hold Texas if John Cornyn is not our nominee.”

Some Republican leaders have worried the party will need to spend much more money to defend the seat if Paxton is the nominee — money they could be spending on Senate races in more competitive states. Paxton was acquitted in a 2023 impeachment trial on corruption charges. He also reached a deal in 2024 to end a long-running securities fraud case.

While Trump’s approval ratings have slumped among Americans overall, he has shown the ability to sway GOP primary voters.

In Indiana, Trump’s endorsement helped dislodge five of the seven Republican state senators who were seeking reelection in the May 5 primary after they voted in December against the White House-backed redistricting plan to give Republicans an advantage in U.S. House races.

On Saturday, Cassidy finished third in Louisiana, therefore out of the running in the June 27 runoff for the Republican nomination to the seat he has held for two terms. The Trump-endorsed candidate, U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, finished first ahead of state Treasurer John Fleming and both will compete in the runoff.

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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa, and Bedayn reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press journalists Stephen Groves in Washington and Kendria LaFleur in Allen, Texas, contributed.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 elections at https://apnews.com/hub/elections.

Thomas Beaumont, Jesse Bedayn And Kendria Lafleur, The Associated Press