Paxton Crushes Cornyn in Texas Runoff After Winning Trump Nod

[lostincalifornia]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Bloomberg

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stormed to a blowout victory in the state's Republican Senate runoff, easily defeating four-term incumbent John Cornyn and setting up a November showdown with a well-funded Democrat, James Talarico.

With 60% of the vote counted, Paxton had 62% of the vote in the two-man race on Tuesday while Cornyn trailed with 38%, according to DDHQ. Paxton clinched the nomination a week after securing an endorsement from President Donald Trump in the hard-fought race, one of the most expensive primaries in Senate history.

Paxton's victory, the first time since 1970 that an insurgent has won a primary against a sitting Texas senator, underscores Trump's sway with Republican voters -- but it also opens the door to a more serious challenge in November as the Democrats fight to flip both houses of Congress. Paxton, a conservative firebrand with a history of scandal, will face Talarico as national polls show voters souring on Trump's handling of the economy and the war with Iran.

"With a nominee like Paxton, Texas would move into a fully competitive race," the nonpartisan Cook Political Report said in an analysis ahead of the Republican runoff.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-27/trump-pick-paxton-beats-cornyn-in-texas-primary-ddhq-projects?srnd=homepage-americas

---

Those who think Texas is in play I think are deluding themselves.

I realize people think we have the best chance against the deviant paxon, but I am very skeptical. The same thing was thought with Ted Cruz that we would win against him.

[underpants]

1. With the wind at our back and a couple good bounces ...there's a chance

Just saying

[democratsruletheday]

2. The problem with Texas is....

it's full of (MAGAt) Texans.

Paxton is a huge POS....as bad or worse than Trump. If we can't beat this turd, we'll never win anything down there again.....EVER.

[msongs]

3. senator/governor beto agrees with you

[peppertree]

13. And don't forget those "Texas landslides"

Vote totals seem to magically change out there - and always in the direction of whomever Big Awl wants.

[fujiyamasan]

16. I agree, Talarico is the best shot Dems have had since Beto

Of winning a statewide race there. If he can’t win against a degenerate corrupt scum bag like Paxton, there’s little hope for Dems in the state and better to invest elsewhere…

[JMCKUSICK]

4. Has anyone heard what Texas' turnout has been? Some counties with less than 50 total votes counted

are reporting as 83% in?

Example from NBC news is Culberson County in far west has 38 R votes counted and 95% in.
In the primary the vote count was more than double that in R.

[Scruffy1]

17. We have a county with less than 100 residents.

Hedspeth just east of El Paso is bigger than Delaware and has 3000 or so residents.

[Frasier Balzov]

5. The state which elected Ann Richards

should not be considered irredeemable!

[Zorro]

6. Trump and Paxton

Turds of a feather.

[AverageOldGuy]

7. Made me almost physically ill

Wife and I were watching a Yankees-Royals baseball game, Yankees were ahead 12-1, game almost over, so she went to bed and I switched to Lawrence.

Lawrence was interviewing Talarico, the Democrat who will face Paxton.

Lawrence played the part of Paxton's victory speech where he attacked Talarico with every vile lie he could find. Paxton's attacks on Talarico are so vile, so evil, so filled with hate it almost made me puke.

If you have a chance to hear Paxton's attacks on Talarico, don't do it.

[AverageOldGuy]

8. Turnout

I did some quick Googling -- I may have missed the fine points, but this is what I found.

Paxton: 750,000 votes
Cornyn: 422,000
So -- that's a total of 1,172,000 votes cast in a Republican primary..

These numbers are with not quite 90% of the votes reported, so, my calcuations will change.

Texas has 18,700,000 registered voters; of those 18,700,000 are registered Republicans.

So -- Paxton's 750,000 votes are 11% of the total number of registered Republican voters but only 4% of the total number of voters.

If Democrats will turn out in November . . . .

[littlemissmartypants]

9. Data update

March 2026: 18,657,918 registered voters

April 2026
Democrats: 8,182,838 voters (46.55%)
Republicans: 6,617,030 voters (37.64%)
Independent/Other: 2,778,772 voters (15.81%)

[oldmanlynn]

10. Basically that says that many Democrats don't even get out there and vote

That’s what that looks like to me

[PSPS]

12. OOPS! CHeck your numbers!

[PSPS]

11. Not surprising. Only republicans vote in the primary and their base has dwindled to all maga now.

Everyone can vote in the general so, maybe, enough sane people will overcome the maga hyenas.

[Jack Valentino]

14. Ted Cruz had much better approval numbers going into that election, he was

still "above water" (more approval than disapproval in Texas polls) despite Democratic hopes. Paxton has NEGATIVE approval numbers
and negative GE polls.... and a much bigger Trump millstone around his neck than 2018,
and angrier Democrats, independents and hispanics all more anxious to vote, than in 2018...

This year's midterm election is looking much more like 2006 than 2018...
now we have another unpopular Republican war, just as in 2006...


I can understand the skepticism about Texas,
but this is an election year unlike any other,
with a Texas Republican Senate nominee worse than any other in memory---

so voicing that skepticism now is DEFEATIST talk, and extremely inappropriate at this moment!

HELL, I am more confident that the Democrat will win the Senate seat in TEXAS this year,
than I am about the Senate seat in my own state of Michigan, where we haven't elected a Republican
to the US Senate since 1994!---- according to all the data I have seen-- the Texas numbers are better!

[Karasu]

15. The media pretending this stupid primary was ever "competitive" is a joke. It's a Republican primary in 2026.

The outcome was a foregone conclusion.

[Torchlight]

18. Taylor Rehmet's upset win in Feb provides me hope

I imagine more than a few acquaintances informed him of his delusions as well.

[Omaha Steve]

19. AFTER a review by forum hosts LOCKING

Source is not the AP as required!

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