Trump Goes All-In on Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate

On Tuesday, Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Republican runoff for the United States Senate, dealing a devastating blow to incumbent Sen. John Cornyn one week before voting ends in a race that has become the most expensive Senate primary in American history. The endorsement, delivered in a lengthy post on Truth Social, immediately reshuffled what was already a bruising fight and sent shockwaves through the Senate Republican establishment, which had been quietly counting on Cornyn to hold the seat.

Trump’s words left nothing to interpretation. “Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate. He will tirelessly fight to continue the Great Growth of our Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations,” Trump wrote. He added: “Ken Paxton has gone through a lot, in many cases, very unfairly, but he is a Fighter, and knows how to WIN. Our Country needs Fighters, and also Loyalty to the Cause of Greatness.”

On Cornyn, Trump was pointed but measured. “John Cornyn is a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough and, despite having the Most Successful Economy in the History of our Country during my First Term and, with all of the many other things that I accomplished,” the president wrote, a clear reference to Cornyn’s hesitation to back Trump during critical moments in the 2024 presidential primary.

The endorsement caps more than a year of frantic courtship from both camps. Cornyn spent the better part of eighteen months positioning himself as a reliable Trump ally, boasting that he had voted with the president more than 99 percent of the time in the Senate. After the endorsement dropped, Cornyn posted on X that he has worked closely with Trump through both of his presidential terms. “He has consistently called me a friend in this race,” Cornyn said, asking Texas Republicans to stand with him. But the damage was done. A sitting president had looked a five-term Senate incumbent in the eye and chosen the other guy.

Paxton, for his part, was effusive. “No one has ever fought harder for the American people than President Trump, and I look forward to championing his America First agenda in the Senate,” he posted after the endorsement landed.

To understand why this endorsement carries so much weight, one must understand what Ken Paxton represents in Texas conservative politics. As attorney general for over a decade, Paxton became one of the most combative and consequential legal warriors in the country on behalf of conservative causes. He led multistate lawsuits against the Biden administration’s open border policies, fought woke corporate agendas in court, and took on the federal government at nearly every turn when it overstepped its constitutional bounds. He was, in the truest sense, a fighter long before fighting was fashionable in Republican politics.

His path has not been without turbulence. Paxton was indicted in 2015 on securities fraud charges, a legal saga that dragged on for nine years through two reelection victories before ultimately being resolved in 2024 when he agreed to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution and complete community service in exchange for the charges being dropped. In 2023, the Texas House impeached him on a range of allegations, but the Texas Senate acquitted him on all counts. Paxton and his supporters have long maintained that the legal attacks against him were politically motivated efforts by establishment forces to take down one of the most effective conservative fighters in the country.

The timing of the endorsement is significant. It came the same day Trump’s endorsed candidate, Ed Gallrein, defeated Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky, giving the president back-to-back victories in a single news cycle that demonstrated his undiminished power over Republican primary voters.

It also came just days after Trump successfully pushed Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana out of his seat after years of fallout from Cassidy’s vote to convict Trump in the second impeachment. The message being sent to the Republican Party is consistent and unmistakable.

The stakes in Texas extend beyond the primary. The Texas race has become the most expensive Senate primary in American history, with both parties having spent well over $100 million total, a figure that will continue to climb. Democrats, sensing an opportunity, nominated state Rep. James Talarico and are eyeing Texas as a potential pickup in November.

Senate Republican leaders had argued privately that Cornyn represented the safer general election candidate. Trump disagreed, and in Trump’s Republican Party, that is the only argument that matters.