DALLAS (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday he soon will endorse a Republican candidate in the Texas Senate race, warning that the divisive contest “cannot, for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer.”
But Trump, a former reality television host, continued to stoke suspense over his decision by not immediately naming his choice, even as Republicans on Capitol Hill pushed him to support four-term Sen.
John Cornyn over conservative firebrand Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general.
“IT MUST STOP NOW!” Trump wrote on social media after Cornyn and Paxton advanced on Tuesday to a May 26 runoff for the nomination. “I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE! Is that fair? We must win in November!!!”
Republicans are deeply concerned that the 83-day sprint to the Texas runoff election will be expensive and divisive as the party fights to maintain control of Congress in competitive states across the nation.
Texas, a state Trump carried by 14 percentage points, was not supposed to be among this year's political battlegrounds. But operatives in both parties believe Democrats have a real chance to claim a Senate seat here for the first time in nearly four decades.
Democrats nominated state Rep. James Talarico, a 36-year-old Christian progressive who Republicans privately believed to be a stronger general election candidate than his primary opponent, Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
There was already pressure on Trump to endorse Cornyn before the president's social media post Wednesday afternoon.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that Cornyn was "the best bet to win the general election.” Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming and Mike Rounds of South Dakota said they have been sending similar messages to Trump.
The drumbeat has grown loud enough that Rep. Ronny Jackson, a Trump ally from Texas, said the expectation is the president will endorse Cornyn.
“It’s going to be probably more difficult for Paxton to beat Talarico than Cornyn,” said Jackson, who has not made an endorsement. Because Cornyn has been "dumping tons of money in the race,” Jackson said it makes sense to avoid spending even more “picking each other apart for weeks and then going into the general election as the nominee wounded.”
Cornyn and his allies spent nearly $70 million to survive the first round of the primary. He was slightly ahead of Paxton with more votes still being counted Wednesday.
Some right-wing allies of the president warned him against backing Cornyn, whom they view as insufficiently loyal to Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement.
“Endorsing Cornyn will be more gutting to the base than the Iran air strikes,” wrote conservative influencer Mike Cernovich on social media.
It is unclear whether any level of attack can deter Paxton, who has long been shadowed by allegations of corruption and infidelity. He has fashioned himself as the kind of diehard supporter that Trump needs in Washington.
Paxton was defiant when speaking to a few hundred supporters at a Dallas hotel ballroom on Tuesday night, a far different scene from Cornyn's small news conference.
“We just sent a message, loud and clear, to Washington,” he said. “We are not going to go quietly, and we are not going to let you buy the seat.”
Cornyn's campaign argued that a runoff would not have been necessary without the “vanity campaign” by Rep. Wesley Hunt, who finished a distant third. It is not known how Hunt's voters would line up in the runoff.
The pro-Paxton Lone Star political action committee, in a memo, described Cornyn as a “Washington relic."
“The D.C. establishment has done its job: it rallied around its wounded incumbent, opened the fundraising spigot, and flooded the airwaves. But the results, the data, and the reality on the ground all point to the same conclusion: John Cornyn has no viable path to the Republican nomination,” the memo said. “Cornyn should suspend his campaign, concede the nomination to Ken Paxton, and refuse to allow another $100+ million in Republican resources to be burned in a race that is already decided.”
While Trump's endorsement looms, Cornyn made it clear that he would make the case himself. He told reporters that Paxton would be “a dead weight at the top of the ticket for Republicans" in November.
“I’ve worked for decades to build the Republican Party, both here in Texas and nationally,” Cornyn said. “I refuse to allow a flawed, self-centered and shameless candidate like Ken Paxton to risk everything we’ve worked so hard to build over these many years.”
Cornyn will face intense fundraising pressure, having already spent so much money in the first round of the primary. Aides said he had some small fundraisers planned but nothing in the days immediately after the election as he returns to Washington.
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Peoples reported from New York and Mascaro from Washington. Follow the AP's coverage of the 2026 elections at https://apnews.com/hub/elections.
