Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced his campaign to unseat Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
After weeks of teasing a run, Paxton declared his decision in an appearance on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle on Tuesday.
“I’m announcing that I’m running for U.S. Senate against John Cornyn, who apparently is running again for his fifth term, which would put him in there three decades,” Paxton said. “It’s definitely time for a change in Texas.”
“We have another great U.S. senator, 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 [President Donald] Trump,” he added.
Cornyn was quick to respond. In a statement to the Washington Examiner, a spokesperson for Cornyn defended his record backing the president, saying he voted with Trump more than 95% more than other senators, and bashed Paxton’s character.
“Ken Paxton is a fraud. He talks tough on crime and then lets crooked progressive Lina Hidalgo off the hook. He says his impeachment trial was a sham but he didn’t contest the facts in legal filings which will cost the state millions. He says he’s anti-woke but he funnels millions of taxpayer dollars to lawyers who celebrate DEl. And Ken claims to be a man of faith but uses fake Uber accounts to meet his girlfriend and deceive his family,” the statement said.
“This will be a spirited campaign and we assure Texans they will have a real choice when this race is over,” it added.
Paxton was quick to hit back, touting his polling numbers.
“Our campaign only responds to serious candidates who aren’t 25 points down in the polls,” he responded.
A polling aggregate by the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin found that Cornyn’s approval rating among Republicans was just 49% in February, one of the lowest of statewide officeholders, compared to Paxton’s 62%. Cornyn’s other Texas colleague, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), had an approval rating of 80% among Republicans.
Paxton has been openly critical of Cornyn in the past, leading to a Feb. 28, 2024, post on X where the incumbent mocked the attorney general over his impeachment trial, which centered on corruption allegations.
“Hard to run from prison, Ken,” he said in response to a post from Paxton saying Republicans deserved a better senator.
The remark enflamed the feud and made Cornyn Paxton’s central target in a revenge tour after his acquittal. The opening remarks in the Republican primary suggest a bitter campaign is coming.
In a March interview with Punchbowl News, the attorney general and staunch Trump ally zeroed in on the perceived weaknesses of Cornyn, such as his hawkishness on Ukraine.
“I’m going to start calling him ‘Senator Ukraine’ because he’s funding Ukraine more than he’s funding our border, and that’s a problem in Texas,” Paxton said.
Paxton dismissed Cornyn’s recent turn further right, saying that voters wouldn’t buy it.
TEXAS DEMOCRATS LOOK FORWARD TO ‘VERY FUN TIMES’ IF PAXTON CHALLENGES CORNYN’S SENATE SEAT
“After 23 years he’s finally got a real opponent — potential opponent. He’s gonna do that, right? I mean, no one’s gonna be surprised by that. Voters are not stupid. Like suddenly he veers to the right? We’re less than a year from the primary now. And as soon as it’s over … he goes back to being John Cornyn,” Paxton said.
Paxton told the outlet he plans to talk to Trump about who he will endorse in 2026, believing he will be chosen. Still, he pointed to data on Corny’s popularity in suggesting that he may not even need the president’s endorsement to defeat the incumbent senator.
Even before Paxton announced his bid on Tuesday, Texas Democrats shared their pleasure in imagining the attorney general challenging Cornyn for the Senate seat.