Trump-endorsed Paxton knocks out veteran senator Cornyn in heated Texas Senate runoff

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton easily defeated four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday in a vicious and expensive runoff election punctuated by a last-minute endorsement from President Trump.

“Tonight we just sent a Texas-sized message to Washington,” Mr. Paxton said at his election night party. “Today, change was on the ballot and change won.”

With 67% of the vote counted, Mr. Paxton led Mr. Cornyn by a 63%-37% margin. Multiple news organizations called the race just minutes after the last polls closed in the state just after 9 p.m. EDT.

Mr. Paxton, a Trump loyalist and “MAGA warrior,” was already favored to prevail over Mr. Cornyn when Mr. Trump supercharged his chances of victory by endorsing him on May 19.

“When everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and abandon the people of Texas, he didn’t listen,” Mr. Paxton said in his victory speech. “Instead, he gave his complete and total endorsement.”

He said his victory showed that Mr. Trump’s blessing is the “most powerful force in politics.”

Mr. Cornyn delivered a somber concession speech, saying he has spent his career trying to build the Republican Party and that he plans to continue doing so by supporting the GOP ticket this fall.

“I trust the voters of Texas,” Mr. Cornyn said, standing with his wife and two daughters. “They made their decision, and I must respect it.”

Quoting the Apostle Paul, he added, “I’ve fought the good fight, I finished the race, and I’ve kept the faith.”

Mr. Paxton will now face off in November against Democrat James Talarico, a state lawmaker, for the U.S. Senate seat that Mr. Cornyn has occupied since 2002.

Shortly after the race was called, Mr. Talarico released an attack ad describing Mr. Paxton as “The Most Corrupt Politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate.”

Mr. Paxton, meanwhile, warned his supporters at his election night party that Mr. Talarico “is the most extreme radical the Democrats have ever nominated.”

“James Talarico is a threat to everything we hold dear in this state and in this country,” he said.

Democrats celebrated Mr. Paxton’s victory and are poised to invest tens of millions of dollars in Mr. Talarico’s campaign.

Party operatives believe Mr. Paxton’s trail of personal and professional scandals gives them a chance to elect a Texas Democrat to the Senate for the first time since 1988.

Recent polls showed Mr. Paxton, 63, in a dead heat with Mr. Talarico, 37, in a general election matchup.

Mr. Cornyn’s defeat marks Mr. Trump’s latest knock-out punch at Republicans he believes have shown disloyalty or worked against his agenda.

On May 16, two-term Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who voted to remove Mr. Trump from office following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, finished third in the Republican primary and didn’t even make the runoff. He trailed both U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who was recruited and endorsed by the president, and state Treasurer John Fleming.

Mr. Trump also took down Rep. Thomas Massie on May 18 in his deep-red Kentucky congressional district after endorsing his primary opponent, Ed Gallrein. Mr. Massie voted against the president’s signature tax-cut bill, spoke out against the Iran war and helped force a Congressional vote to release the Epstein files.

Mr. Cornyn’s sins against the president date back a decade, to when he first opposed then-candidate Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the southern border. Mr. Cornyn also spoke out against Mr. Trump’s decision to run for president again in 2024, although he later endorsed his candidacy.

Mr. Cornyn touted his record of voting in favor of the Trump agenda more than 99% of the time, but Mr. Trump, in his endorsement of Mr. Paxton, dissented.

He said Mr. Cornyn “was not supportive of me when times were tough … and was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination, and then, the Presidency, itself, both of which were Landslide Victories.”

Mr. Trump reposted his endorsement Tuesday, calling on Texans to “vote for Ken Paxton, our Country’s BEST Attorney General!”

Mr. Cornyn hoped to defeat Mr. Paxton by smothering the airwaves with vicious AI-aided ads reminding voters of his opponent’s alleged mistresses, messy divorce and impeachment on corruption charges.

The primary and runoff were the most costly non-general elections in U.S. history, with the Cornyn campaign and his political allies burning through $90 million trying to defeat Mr. Paxton.

Mr. Cornyn, 74, narrowly prevailed in the March 3 primary, beating Mr. Paxton 42% to 41% but failed to beat the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff.

Analysts predicted correctly that a much smaller, more conservative Republican voter turnout on Tuesday would hurt Mr. Cornyn and help Mr. Paxton.

The GOP is likely to have to shell out far more money than it initially anticipated to match Democratic spending in a race that the Democrats now see as winnable with Mr. Paxton on the ballot.

The party hopes Mr. Talarico can energize Democrats with populist economic proposals to address the high cost of living.

He has, for example, sided with Mr. Trump in calling for the suspension of the federal gas tax. His social media accounts have amassed more than 2.5 million followers, and he has pivoted away from his party’s past focus on identity politics.

“The biggest divide in this country is not left vs. right. It’s top vs. bottom. Billionaires want us looking left and right at each other instead of looking up at them,” Mr. Talarico said.

He’s in favor of taxing the “ultra-wealthy,” banning congressional stock trading, and imposing term limits for Congressional lawmakers.

Mr. Paxton is campaigning as “the nation’s most conservative attorney general” and promoted his more than 100 lawsuits against the Biden administration and his fight against the “woke” agenda.

He’s pledged to cut taxes, keep the borders secure and “stand with President Trump and help him make America great again,” in the Senate.

Confident of his runoff victory, Mr. Paxton last week pivoted to attacking Mr. Talarico, whom he told Fox News, “has the most radical views maybe I’ve ever seen.”

Mr. Talarico, while serving in the state legislature, said God is “non-binary,” and there are more than two biological sexes. “In fact, there are six,” Mr. Talarico said in 2021.

He called it an “existential” requirement that Texans reduce meat consumption. The Texas southern border, he said earlier this year, “should be like our front porch,” with “a lock on the door” but also “a giant welcome mat out front.”

Mr. Talarico said the United States can both create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants while keeping out “people who mean to do us harm.”