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Paxton has trailed Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in fundraising, and some Republicans say the party will have to spend millions to win the Senate race.President Donald Trump may be celebrating that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won Tuesday’s Senate primary, but some Republicans now worry that they have a Texas-sized problem on their hands. Paxton, with Trump’s endorsement, handily defeated four-term Sen. John Cornyn in the runoff. Democrats largely viewed Paxton as the weaker candidate because of his many controversies. But his fundraising struggles are also raising alarm bells among Republicans. “Economically, it’s a disaster. Texas is extremely expensive,”...

CNN This Morning began its coverage today of Ken Paxton’s decisive victory over John Cornyn in the Texas Republican Senate primary runoff by airing Manu Raju's interviews on an Austin street with exactly two Texas Republicans who swore they won’t vote for Paxton. One even declared she will “absolutely” vote for Democrat James Talarico in November. This is what passes for journalism at CNN these days. Hand-picked, cherry-picked, man-on-the-street interviews that conveniently fit the narrative the liberal network wants to push: that Paxton’s win is somehow fracturing the GOP and handing the seat to Democrats. Could anything be less scientific...

Race called!

In one of his first rallies since winning President Donald Trump’s endorsement in his Senate race, Ken Paxton told the crowd he wanted to try something new. The Democratic nominee, James Talarico, Paxton said, would be the “most radical US senator from Texas, maybe in the whole country, ever, so I wanted to test a few nicknames tonight and see if you can help me.” The suggestions from the audience started flowing as Paxton passed the mic around. “Low-T Talarico.” “Tofu Talarico.” “Tala-freak-o.” “Soy boy!” a man yelled out unprompted. The food references came from an already burgeoning Republican talking...

Ken Paxton, the Trump-endorsed and MAGA-backed insurgent, ousted Senator John Cornyn in a runoff on Tuesday, becoming the second primary challenger to knock out an incumbent Republican senator in less than two weeks in a raw display of President Trump’s powerful hold on the party base. The contest was the most expensive primary in American history — and Mr. Paxton prevailed despite being outspent on advertising by pro-Cornyn forces by roughly $80 million. Now, Republicans are bracing for a potentially competitive general election in Texas, where Democrats have not won statewide in a generation. Democratic donors nationwide have swooned for...

50% in Paxton 62.5% Cornyn 37.5%

On Tuesday’s CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish asked — seemingly out of nowhere — during the Group Chat on the Texas GOP Senate primary runoff: “Is John Cornyn a RINO?”Cornish did not mention or dispute Cornyn’s widely cited 99%+ voting alignment with President Trump on roll-call votes where Trump took a clear position. Republican strategist Brad Todd pushed back immediately, saying: “No. And if John Cornyn wins tonight, this Texas Senate race is functionally over. He will be the next US Senator from Texas if he wins tonight.” Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Senate Republicans on Tuesday vented their frustration and disappointment over President Trump’s decision to endorse state Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn (R) in the Texas Senate Republican primary, a move that deals a crushing blow to Cornyn’s hopes of winning the May 26 runoff. “I don’t understand. He is an ethically challenged individual,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said of Paxton, who was charged with defrauding investors in a Dallas-area tech startup before he completed a pretrial diversion program. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she was “supremely disappointed” in Trump’s endorsement of Paxton over Cornyn. “I don’t understand...

As the MAGA faithful gather for another day of CPAC in Grapevine, Texas, they are openly celebrating what they believe is tantamount to a major midterms victory: keeping President Donald Trump from endorsing John Cornyn ahead of May’s GOP Senate primary runoff. MAGA world is taking a victory lap — and fresh comfort — in the receipts: A lack of significant spending and polling so far by not only Cornyn’s campaign, but also the NRSC and One Nation, the Senate Leadership Fund-aligned nonprofit. It amounts to a pattern the MAGA cohort reads as Washington making peace with a matchup between...

President Trump allowed the deadline for candidates to drop out to pass Tuesday without making an endorsement in the hotly contested Republican Texas Senate primary runoff race. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking on incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the May 26 runoff, after neither candidate received 50% of the vote in the primary earlier this month. Trump had previously said he would ask whichever candidate did not receive his endorsement to drop out of the race. Paxton has said he would be willing to drop out if Senate Republicans agreed to roll back the filibuster and pass...

A senior staff member for Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) reelection campaign has a history of raging against Breitbart News and President Donald Trump while aligning with radical leftists. Matt Mackowiak, who serves as the communications director for Cornyn’s campaign, once demanded advertisers drop Breitbart News and said the outlet should be “defrocked” from the conservative movement, tweets unearthed by The National Pulse reveal. “It’s time to defrock Breitbart from the conservative movement. Treat them like Infowars. Pressure their advertisers. Ignore them,” Mackowiak wrote in a post to X in 2016.

A super PAC backing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) for Senate is airing television ads in Palm Beach, Fla., where President Trump is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort, as his endorsement in a competitive primary runoff hangs in the balance. Lone Star Liberty PAC came out with a new television ad on Friday that accuses Paxton’s opponent, Rep. John Cornyn (R-Texas), of having “betrayed” Trump, citing his votes to confirm Merrick Garland as U.S. attorney general and Lisa Monaco as deputy attorney general in 2021. “John Cornyn betrayed President Trump, and he doesn’t deserve our trust” the...

The scenario long-dreaded by Republican strategists looks increasingly plausible following Tuesday’s primary election in Texas: Democrat James Talarico may face Republican Ken Paxton for the state’s U.S. Senate seat in November. Paxton is heading for a runoff against Sen. John Cornyn where he is likely to be at least a slight favorite, though the final results from the first round of voting could shift expectations. Talarico defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary, according to Associated Press projections. Republicans fear the matchup could, at the very least, cost the party tens of millions of dollars to protect Paxton, the...

Senate Republicans know that Trump-backed voter ID legislation is doomed to fail and are trying to find a way to pin the blame on Senate Democrats. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., plans to bring the bill to the floor next week, but Republicans won’t take the route of launching into a talking filibuster despite pressure from President Donald Trump and the GOP base to do so. "We don't have the votes either to proceed, get on a talking filibuster, nor to sustain one if we got on it," Thune said. "But that is just a function of math, and...

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, reversed himself on the Senate filibuster Wednesday after years of unflinching support for the 60-vote threshold to pass most bills. Now, locked in a competitive Republican runoff for his Senate seat and eyeing President Donald Trump's endorsement, Cornyn says he'll support "whatever changes to Senate rules that may prove necessary" to pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping election overhaul bill that Trump has called his No. 1 priority. Cornyn's comments are part of an op-ed he wrote in the New York Post published Wednesday, titled: "Why the SAVE Act matters more than the filibuster." The...

Sen. John Cornyn threw his support behind scrapping the filibuster to pass a voting restrictions bill President Donald Trump has called his “No. 1 priority” in Congress, as the Texas Republican continues to seek the president’s endorsement and stave off a bruising primary runoff election. Trump has held off on endorsing Cornyn, the pick of top Senate Republicans, over Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a bid to pressure leadership to lower the threshold of votes needed to pass the SAVE America Act, which would enact citizenship and photo ID restrictions in elections while also targeting transgender rights. Paxton has...

Some of the first polling of the general election race for U.S. Senate in Texas showed that the Democratic candidate has the lead over both Republicans vying for the seat. Texas state Rep. James Talarico won the Democratic Party’s nomination during last week’s primary. However, the Republicans running for the office – incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton – are preparing for a May runoff after neither of them cracked the 50% threshold during the primary. The poll was conducted by Public Policy Polling between March 4 and 5 and asked respondents questions ranging from the...

Just got a call from a Senate staffer. GOP leadership can't allow the disclosure of sex harassment settlements right now. The reason? It would harm John Cornyn. I'm told: that particular settlement was paid to another man.

One of the reasons Thune, McConnell, etc. want to protect Cornyn and get him reelected is so they can pass the Senate Judiciary gavel to him. So they can continue to thwart conservatism and prevent conservatives in executive legal positions. Grassley has been thwarting US attorney nominees with the blue slip nonsense, Tillis stopped Ed Martin and had to be dragged kicking and screaming to support Bondi. Cornyn gone from the committee opens up Mike Lee as chair. With both Cornyn and Tillis gone, and Grassley almost dead, Lindsay Graham will be the only pantywaist left. Cornyn MUST be defeated...

@SaraGonzalesTX Mr. President @realDonaldTrump, I am one of your biggest supporters and I am urging you as someone who is in the Texas grassroots: do NOT endorse Cornyn. It will be one of your biggest mistakes. The majority of Texas voters voted AGAINST Cornyn last night. We don’t want him!