Texas runoff: Election denier Ken Paxton wins GOP nod for U.S. Senate

By Brentin Mock

FORT WORTH, TEXAS - FEBRUARY 28: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton campaigns as a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate at an event on February 28, 2026 in Fort Worth, Texas. Paxton will be running against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rep Wesley Hunt (R-TX) for the Senate seat on the March 3rd primaries. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has won the state’s U.S. Senate Republican primary runoff over the four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, boosted by an endorsement from President Donald Trump, according to multiple news outlets. 

The result is the latest evidence of how election denialism and support for voter suppression have become central to Republican politics. 

Paxton led the legal bid to overturn the 2020 election. And he has been an outspoken backer of the SAVE America Act, the monster voter suppression bill that Trump has said should be the GOP’s top priority. 

“TEXAS, REMEMBER! Ken Paxton was a GREAT Attorney General, probably the best in the Country,” wrote Trump on TruthSocial over the weekend. “Ken’s opponent was VERY disloyal to me, as President, and didn’t fight hard enough for the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT – VOTER I.D., PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP, NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS (with exceptions for Military, Illness, Disability, or Travel!). What more needs to be said???”

Some GOP senators are concerned that the Texas attorney general is much more vulnerable to losing November’s general election to the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico.

“Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in America,” said Talarico on X after the race was called for Paxton. “He embodies the broken system we’re running against. It’s time to come together: The People vs. Ken Paxton”

Paxton has a well-documented record of promoting policies that suppress and restrict voting. He not only sued to have the U.S. Supreme Court overturn the results of several battleground states in 2020, to help Trump, but he also helped lead Texas gerrymandering efforts last year – including by threatening to arrest Democrats who protested it. 

And this year, he was a vocal and early supporter of a plan to sideline the filibuster to allow the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act. Cornyn, by contrast, only came around to the strategy in the days before the GOP primary last month.

In 2023, he was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives on multiple charges including bribery, retaliation against whistleblowers from his office, and the misuse of his office for handling private legal affairs. He was later acquitted by the Texas state Senate.