Paxton defeats Cornyn in Texas GOP Senate primary runoff

AUSTIN, Texas (Gray DC) - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won the state’s GOP U.S. Senate primary runoff on Tuesday night, defeating longtime sitting Sen. John Cornyn.

“To the people in this room, to the people watching at home and to the people of the great state of Texas, tonight, we just made history,” Paxton said.

Paxton is the second candidate to unseat an incumbent U.S. senator this year after receiving an endorsement from President Donald Trump.

Trump endorsed Paxton in a social media post a week before the runoff. He called the attorney general a “true MAGA warrior” while writing that Cornyn “was not supportive of me when times were tough.”

“After a public service career lasting more than four decades and 18 consecutive campaign wins, tonight, we’ve come up short in this primary runoff,” Cornyn said in his concession speech in Austin.

Paxton will face Democratic opponent James Talarico in November. The outcome of that race could determine control of the Senate and possibly impact the second half of Trump’s term.

Political experts say the typically red Senate seat may be more competitive now and require more investment, pointing to past scandals that Paxton has faced.

“He has a litany of baggage, having been impeached, allegations of bribery and misuse of office and his wife divorcing him on biblical grounds, which everyone understands to mean infidelity,” said Jessica Taylor, Senate and Governors Editor for the Cook Political Report. “Republicans are going to have to spend a lot of money to try to keep this seat in their column that I don’t think they would have had to have spent if Cornyn had been the nominee.”

Cornyn has seven months left in his current term and said he intends to finish it out.