DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — Republican Ken Paxton is riding high as the Texas attorney general heads into the final days of the U.S. Senate primary runoff against incumbent John Cornyn, now with the weight of President Donald Trump's backing.
“I don’t know if y'all noticed this, but Donald Trump endorsed me,” Paxton told a small rally in a town outside Austin, inciting whoops and applause from the crowd.
Tuesday's election has drawn national attention
and gobs of money. It also has become the latest campaign in which Trump is encouraging voters to oust a politician who has displeased him and elect a challenger more aligned with the president. That effort has been largely successful for Trump. Earlier this week, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost in the GOP primary to Ed Gallrein, Trump's handpicked candidate. Trump also has succeeded in defeating incumbents in Louisiana and Indiana.
Paxton has been turning his focus to the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico. Paxton opened his event Thursday with attacks on Talarico, a sign of his confidence heading into the runoff.
Paxton then gave a biography of his political life and tried hammering home the reason he says he should be the nominee: his history of lawsuits defending conservative values. It is the type of resume that endears Paxton to the “Make America Great Again” faithful, some of his supporters said.
“He’s a fighter, he’s a person of action, he’s proven that as attorney general,” said Jeffrey Sonnier, 72, who attended the rally and echoed the sentiment of many supporters at the event.
As for Cornyn, said Sonnier, “he’s inactive for five years and digs out to become a supposed active Republican MAGA person every six years.”
Paxton’s campaign said Thursday that it's pulling negative ads against Cornyn. Instead, starting after Trump's Tuesday endorsement, the campaign and a super political action committee that supports his candidacy began airing separate ads promoting Trump's favor.
Cornyn’s campaign and groups supporting him, however, were outspending the pro-Paxton groups 3-to-1 and had reprised an ad they began airing last year noting Cornyn’s support for Trump’s agenda and featuring video clips of Trump praising Cornyn.
“He's called me a friend, and that's no surprise because I've supported him and his policies, you may have seen a commercial or two to that effect, 99.3% of the time,” said Cornyn in a video posted to X from a recent event.
Cornyn has also long worked to shift the race to focus not on fidelity to the president but on character.
The campaign has leaned heavily into messaging about Paxton's past, which includes an alleged affair and an impeachment for corruption in which Paxton was acquitted.
If Paxton is the nominee, that will be litigated in a general election against Talarico, where voters will be less “willing to overlook all the corruption, the self-dealing and the scandals,” Cornyn argued at a recent campaign event. “Ken Paxton would hand it to (Democrats) on a silver platter.”
Paxton supporters at his Thursday rally shrugged off the accusations.
“He’s had his flaws, but so have we; we all make mistakes,” said Daniel Vega, 18, adding, “He’s repented, let’s move on.”
Through this week, Cornyn’s campaign and groups supporting it will have spent roughly $90 million in advertising, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. That includes more than $20 million since the March 3 primary election.
Paxton’s campaign and the single super PAC have combined to spend roughly $10.5 million on advertising, with roughly $6.1 million since that contest.
The ads have flooded voters.
“The commercials are leading me against Paxton, that he might be a little crooked,” said Gail Licea, 74, a retired registered nurse, who attended a Cornyn event before Trump’s endorsement. Then again, she said, “I’ve been led to believe that sometimes John Cornyn doesn’t back President Donald Trump, and that concerns me.”
The advertising has been so concentrated, it was unclear how much the late pivot by the groups would affect Tuesday’s outcome, said Wayne Hamilton, former executive director of the Texas Republican Party.
“There is so much noise out there right now,” said Hamilton, who is an adviser to Gov. Greg Abbott and is unaffiliated with either of the Senate candidates. “I don’t know how any one message is going to break through.”
