Paxton touts Trump endorsement in final push before Texas Senate runoff

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made President Donald Trump’s endorsement the centerpiece of his closing argument in the Republican U.S. Senate primary runoff against Sen. John Cornyn, telling supporters at a rally outside Austin that the president’s backing puts momentum behind his challenge to one of the Senate’s longest-serving Republicans.

“I don’t know if y’all noticed this, but Donald Trump endorsed me,” Paxton told a small crowd in Dripping Springs, about 20 miles west of Austin, drawing whoops and applause, according to the Associated Press.

The race, which has drawn national attention and heavy outside spending, holds its runoff on Tuesday. Paxton, the state’s attorney general, is seeking to unseat Cornyn, who has held the seat since 2002 and has served as the Senate’s Republican whip. The contest has become the latest high-profile test of Trump’s ability to enforce loyalty within the party by endorsing primary challengers against incumbents he views as insufficiently aligned with him.

That pattern has already produced results this month. On May 19, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his GOP primary to Ed Gallrein, a Trump-endorsed challenger. Trump’s preferred candidates also succeeded in defeating Republican incumbents in Louisiana and Indiana earlier in May, giving the president a string of victories heading into the Texas runoff.

For Cornyn, the race represents the gravest primary threat of his career. The senator has at times distanced himself from Trump, most notably by voting to certify the 2020 election results and by questioning the administration’s foreign policy choices. Paxton has campaigned aggressively on his own record of challenging the Biden administration in court and on his alignment with Trump’s agenda.

The runoff will determine the Republican nominee for the Senate seat in November, when the winner is expected to face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. Texas has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988, and the Republican nominee enters the general election as the heavy favorite.