Houston-area congressman Wesley Hunt and Attorney General Ken Paxton are challenging incumbent John Cornyn.
By Joseph Morton and Gromer Jeffers Jr.
Staff Writers
The Associated Press
Monday’s filing deadline saw little drama in the Texas Republican primary for U.S. Senate, as the top contenders have been sparring for months.
Longtime incumbent John Cornyn is seeking his fifth six-year term and finds himself fighting a two-front battle against primary challenges from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston.
Polling suggests the race is now a three-way dogfight with a good chance none of the three clears 50% in the March 3 primary. If none of the candidates cross that threshold, it would throw the race into a runoff between the top two finishers.
When Ken Paxton launched his primary challenge to Cornyn in April, polls showed the attorney general had a significant advantage.
Cornyn and his allies unleashed a summer of blistering attacks on Paxton, fueled by tens of millions of dollars.
They have highlighted corruption allegations from Paxton’s impeachment by the Texas House — he was acquitted by the Senate — and issues in his personal life, which include a potentially messy divorce and accusations of infidelity.
Cornyn has framed the issues as more than enough evidence Paxton is unfit for the office.
He says Democrats could use Paxton’s baggage in the general election, potentially flipping the seat and costing Republicans their thin Senate majority.
Pro-Cornyn ads have flooded the airwaves promoting the senator’s record of voting in line with Trump and touting his support for the president. The offensive had a clear impact as Cornyn had made up ground on Paxton by September.
Hunt officially jumped into the race in October, which took much of the heat off Paxton as Cornyn was forced to wage a battle on two fronts.
The two-term Houston-area congressman had been laying the foundation for his campaign by running ads in the Dallas area and elsewhere, promoting his military background as a West Point graduate and Apache helicopter pilot.
Trump remains a wild card in the race.
He declined to back a candidate when asked about the race in August, before Hunt had launched his campaign.
“I like both guys,” he said of Cornyn and Paxton. “They’re both friends of mine, and they’re both good and very different.”
Cornyn has been openly seeking a Trump endorsement, making the case to the president that he’s the best chance for Republicans to hold the seat.
Cornyn critics suggest if Trump was going to endorse Cornyn he would have done so by now. Paxton and Hunt have largely avoided criticizing one another and instead focused their rhetorical attacks on Cornyn.
They’ve highlighted his work on a gun safety measure following the mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school and his urging Republicans to find a presidential nominee other than Trump in May 2023.
Cornyn has pointed to his record of voting with Trump during his two terms in the White House.
His campaign has criticized Hunt for missing votes and committee hearings, suggesting that absenteeism shows he’s more interested in self-promotion than the hard work of legislating.
Hunt has attributed many of those missed votes to family obligations and his time on the 2024 presidential campaign trail with Trump, saying Texans care more that he’s been standing with the party’s leader.
Hunt has suggested Cornyn can’t win the primary while Paxton would have challenges in the general. Hunt says he got into the race to give voters a younger Republican candidate aligned with the “America First” agenda.
It remains to be seen how much Hunt and Paxton can ramp up their fundraising operations for the closing stages of the primary.
It’s also a question whether what is effectively a nonaggression pact between Hunt and Paxton will hold or if they will turn to attacking one another.
Cornyn has a demonstrated ability to raise money and benefits from campaign finance law that allows national party organizations to spend significant sums on behalf of incumbents.
Cornyn said Monday his team is sticking to its plan and he’s looking forward to the rest of the campaign.
“It’s hard to know how well both Paxton and Hunt are going to be financed,” Cornyn said. “For all I know, they’re going to run out of gas before they get to the finish line. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”
All three Republicans have welcomed the prospect of facing off against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, who announced Monday she’s seeking her party’s nomination for the seat. State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, is also running.
Cornyn said it would be “a lot of fun” to debate Crockett in a general election.
“She just says such inflammatory and crazy things,” Cornyn said.
In a statement, Paxton predicted Crockett will lose by a wide margin in the general election but criticized the money spent thus far on Cornyn’s behalf, saying that money could have been saved for battleground states.
“The bottom line is that John Cornyn wants to sacrifice the GOP Senate Majority by spending $100M on his losing primary race,” Paxton said.
Joseph Morton covers the intersection of business and politics in the Washington Bureau. Before joining The News, Joseph worked for CQ Roll Call and the Omaha World-Herald. He graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
The Howard University graduate and Chicago native has covered four presidential campaigns and written extensively about local, state and national politics. Before The News, he was a reporter at The Kansas City Star and The Chicago Defender. You can catch Gromer every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on NBC 5’s Lone Star Politics.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
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