Nikki McCann Ramirez
View all posts by Nikki McCann Ramirez May 26, 2026
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Paxton will face off against Democratic candidate James Talarico. Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News/Getty Images After months of intense party infighting and a last-second endorsement by Donald Trump, Texas Republicans have selected Ken Paxton as their candidate in November’s Senate race. The Associated Press announced the victory on Tuesday evening.
Paxton will face off against Democratic candidate James Talarico, a Texas state House representative, former schoolteacher, and Presbyterian seminarian who has built his campaign on a platform of Christian progressivism.
In a statement issued on social media, Talarico thanked Cornyn for his years of service in the Senate, and sent a message to his voters: “you have a place in our campaign.”
“We don’t agree on everything, but we both still believe in public service,” Talarico wrote of the senator, who will remain in office through the next Congress.
While Democrats haven’t won a statewide elected office in Texas in over three decades, the state’s Republican dynasty looks vulnerable this election cycle. Trump’s immigration crackdown has made critiquing the federal handling of border security — a key issue for the state GOP — a no-go zone for Republicans. At the same time, the president’s hardline crackdown on immigration has cratered Trump and Republicans’ support among Hispanic voters in the state, a critical constituency in his 2024 reelection victory.
With the president’s approval rating seemingly in freefall amid the war in Iran and a series of corruption scandals, the MAGA-aligned Texas Republican machine may be staring down the barrel of a trouncing in November.
Last week, with early voting already underway in the critical runoff election, President Trump put his thumb on the scales, endorsing Paxton over Cornyn in a lengthy Truth Social post. Cornyn, a mainstay in the Senate for over 20 years, was dismissed as a “good man,” who was “not supportive” enough of Trump “when times were tough.”
Paxton — the politically rabid state attorney general whose history of scandal and corruption has alienated members of his own party — was described by the president as “a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas,” and a “Strong Supporter of TERMINATING THE FILIBUSTER and, very importantly, THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump’s legislative attempt at requiring documentary proof of citizenship for all voter registrations.
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It didn’t matter to the president that Paxton was underperforming when compared to Cornyn in a matchup against Talarico, or that the national Republican establishment is warning that rehabbing Paxton’s image for skeptical GOP voters, moderates, and independents could cost millions in what is already the most expensive Senate privacy in the nation’s history.
Paxton, who has served as the state’s attorney general since 2015, has had a personal trajectory and political career that is unnervingly comparable to Trump’s. Affairs and a tabloid divorce, allegations of corruption and misuse of office, and even an impeachment trial. Unlike Trump, however, Paxton was impeached by members of his own party on 20 articles related to abuse of office, the acceptance of bribes, making false statements to the State Securities Board, and violating his oath of office — to name a few.
He was impeached by the Texas House — including by 60 Republican members — but acquitted in his Senate trial amid a rift between the party fomented by Paxton’s national supporters, including Trump, White House deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
