An Ugly Texas Senate Primary Is Giving the GOP a Headache

By Elizabeth Findell , Lindsay Wise and Mark Maremont

When deciding whether to seek re-election next year, Texas Sen. John Cornyn said one consideration rose above all: A desire to thwart the other GOP hopeful, state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“I refuse to let someone of his character—or lack of character— represent Texas in the Senate,” Cornyn said in an interview. “I consider this to be drawing a line in the sand.”

Texans are gearing up for an ugly primary between Cornyn, a two-decade senator, and Paxton, a MAGA combatant who has prevailed in Texas politics despite repeated accusations of legal and ethical wrongdoing.

Their party is gearing up for a headache.

Republican leaders fear nominating Paxton, who has an edge with the furthestright voters, could hand Democrats their best opportunity for a win in Texas in decades.

With that in mind, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, chair of Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, both asked President Trump to endorse Cornyn before Paxton announced his campaign. Cornyn himself asked, too. But Trump has so far refused to endorse either Cornyn or Paxton.

A representative for Paxton’s campaign declined to answer questions. In a statement, the attorney general called Cornyn’s attacks desperate and fake.

Cornyn, a onetime Texas Supreme Court justice, has a staunchly right-wing voting record but has grappled with the Trump-era perception that he isn’t MAGA enough. He was booed at the state party convention in 2022, after helping negotiate a bipartisan gunsafety bill in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Paxton, who has been helped by Christian oil billionaires, is known for filing dozens of lawsuits against the Biden administration. In 2020, he sought to block the electoral votes of four other states in an effort to overturn Trump’s loss.

Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Houston- area congressman, has met with national Republicans about a possible candidacy. A person familiar with the conversations said Hunt made the case that only he can win both a primary and a general election without draining GOP coffers.

Cornyn said he would be willing to step aside for the right candidate to defeat Paxton, but he doesn’t believe Hunt could win.

Paxton was re-elected twice while under indictment on securities fraud charges. (Prosecutors dropped the charges last year in exchange for Paxton paying $271,000 in restitution to the alleged victims.) Eight of his top-ranking deputies reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation that Paxton was illegally using his office to benefit a donor. (Paxton denied the allegations, and they didn’t result in charges.)

In 2023, Paxton became the third official in Texas history to be impeached. The state Senate acquitted and reinstated him. Earlier this year, a judge found that Paxton had improperly fired four of the aides who reported him to the FBI and awarded them $6.6 million in damages.

Cornyn has said he intends to make a campaign issue of Paxton’s history, including a property-buying spree he and his wife, a state senator, underwent after the pandemic. The couple own at least 10 residential properties, most purchased since he was elected attorney general in 2014.

Most recently, documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal indicate that Paxton and his wife represented on mortgage documents that at least one of the homes they own in Austin was their principal residence, even as they lived, voted and held office in the Dallas area from a house on which they receive a homestead tax break. Misrepresenting the Austin property as a principal residence, which typically results in a lower interest rate on the loan, could constitute mortgage fraud, real-estate experts said.

Paxton’s campaign wouldn’t comment on the property.

Polls have shown Cornyn behind among primary voters. One survey in May by Texas Southern University found Paxton leading both Cornyn and Hunt, but with the narrowest margins in hypothetical matchups with Democrats.

A survey earlier in the month by the Senate Leader--ship Fund showed Cornyn 16 points down in the Republican primary, but Paxton likely to lose to Democrat Colin Allred in the general election. Allred, a former congressman who challenged Sen. Ted Cruz last year, hasn’t said whether he will run for the seat.