Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated four-term U.S. Sen. John Cornyn by 25 percentage points Tuesday, May 20, in a Republican primary that was called the moment polls closed — a result that left Senate Majority Leader John Thune scrambling to explain how badly his preferred candidate got wrecked.
Trump had endorsed Paxton just eight days before the vote, on Tuesday, May 13, posting on Truth Social that Cornyn “wasn’t supportive of me when times were tough.” The endorsement effectively ended the race before the counting did.
Thune, who had repeatedly urged Trump to back Cornyn, didn’t hide his frustration — but he kept it polite. “Sen. Cornyn is a principled conservative. He is a very effective senator for the state of Texas, but none of us control what the president does,” Thune told reporters. “That doesn’t change the way I feel.”
Cornyn, who previously chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee and served as Senate Majority Whip, became the second sitting senator to fall to a Trump-backed challenger in recent weeks. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana lost earlier in the cycle; Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky also went down after Trump turned on him.
The filibuster was the fault line. Paxton had called Cornyn “a coward who has refused to support abolishing the filibuster to pass” the SAVE America Act — and Trump made that stance central to his endorsement. “Ken is a Strong Supporter of TERMINATING THE FILIBUSTER,” Trump wrote, noting the act “polls at 87%, including Dumocrats, and yet can’t seem to get approved.”
Paxton’s path to November isn’t clean. He was nearly convicted on corruption-related impeachment charges, and his wife filed for divorce in 2025, citing adultery on “biblical grounds.” Some Republican leaders have said privately that those vulnerabilities could complicate what should be a safe seat.
His Democratic opponent is state Rep. James Talarico. Trump has already gone after him — calling him “weird” and “a pathetic candidate, especially for Texas” during remarks on Air Force One. The Lone Star Liberty PAC released an ad Friday, May 23, calling Talarico “too WEAK and WEIRD for Texas.”
Also Tuesday, Rep. Chip Roy — whom Trump allies had labeled “one of the most anti-Trump congressmen in the country” — lost his attorney general primary to Mayes Middleton, who ran under the self-applied label “MAGA Mayes.” Democrat Al Green, removed from the House chamber earlier this year for shouting during Trump’s State of the Union address, also lost his primary. The general election is in November.
Originally reported by The Daily Wire. Read the original report.
