President Donald Trump endorsed Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Texas Republican Senate primary runoff on Tuesday, ending months of public neutrality in a race that could help determine the balance of power in Congress.
“I know Ken well, have seen him tested at the highest and most difficult levels, and he is a WINNER!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, touting Paxton’s support for ending the filibuster and passing the SAVE America Act. “Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate.”
The endorsement landed as early voting opened this week in the runoff between Paxton and four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. Neither candidate secured a majority of votes in the March 3 primary, setting up a brutal electoral fight that ends May 26.
Trump had stayed out of the contest through most of an expensive and personal primary defined by scorched-earth attack ads. But a day after the March vote, he teased on Truth Social that an endorsement was coming “soon” — and said he would ask the loser to “immediately” drop out.
Nearly 11 weeks later, that endorsement came.
“There are those that say whoever I endorse is going to win,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday morning. “Historically, that’s absolutely true. I just don’t like to say, because I don’t like to brag.”
The endorsement caps a race that has come to embody unresolved tensions over electability, the direction of the Republican Party and the fight between the GOP’s traditional establishment wing and its MAGA base. Trump remains broadly popular with Texas Republicans, and his backing is expected to carry weight in the final days of voting.
Cornyn — a former Texas attorney general who has held the seat since 2002 — pitched himself as the experienced conservative best positioned to keep it red. Many Washington Republicans agreed, worried that the scandal-plagued Paxton could put the seat in play in November. Cornyn’s allies poured roughly $70 million into the race, making it the most expensive Senate primary on record anywhere in the country, according to data from AdImpact.
Cornyn led the field in March but has trailed Paxton in subsequent polling. Asked Monday about the prospect of a Trump endorsement, he said he believed “that ship has finally sailed.”
Trump’s track record in Texas this cycle has been mixed. At least three of his endorsed congressional candidates were forced into runoffs in March, and three-term Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, also Trump-backed, lost his primary outright.
The runoff winner will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in November. Democrats are hoping to make the race competitive in a state they haven’t won statewide in three decades.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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