President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a late endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his bid to unseat incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the state’s competitive Republican Senate primary.
“Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate,” Trump said on Truth Social, adding that “Paxton has gone through a lot, in many cases, very unfairly.”
Trump also took a jab at Cornyn, saying the long-time Texas senator was not supportive of him “when things were tough.”
“John was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination, and then, the Presidency, itself, both of which were Landslide Victories,” Trump explained.
Neither Paxton nor Cornyn received more than 50% of the vote during the state’s Republican primary in March, which triggered a runoff between the two candidates. Trump’s endorsement comes just a week before the May 26 runoff election.
A recent poll from the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center at Texas Southern University, released on Monday, found that a race between either Cornyn or Paxton and the Democratic nominee for the seat, James Talarico, would be a tossup. In a Cornyn-Talarico race, 45% of likely voters said they would cast a ballot for Cornyn and 44% for Talarico, whereas in a Paxton-Talarico race, both candidates would get 45% of the votes.
Paxton, a strong supporter of Trump, has faced a litany of political and personal scandals dating back long before he launched his run for the Senate seat. In 2015, Paxton was indicted over accusations of defrauding investors. He pleaded not guilty, and the legal saga went on for nine years, during which he was reelected as state Attorney General twice. In 2024, Paxton struck a deal with prosecutors in which he agreed to pay almost $300,000 in restitution and complete 100 hours of community service in exchange for the charges being dropped.
In 2020, while that case was still playing out, Paxton was also accused by eight members of his senior staff of taking bribes from a real estate developer and abusing his office. The aides reported Paxton to the FBI, which then launched an investigation. Paxton later fired four of the whistleblowers, which resulted in them suing on claims of retaliation and ultimately being awarded $6.6 million. The FBI investigation, along with the whistleblower lawsuit, prompted the Texas state House to impeach Paxton on 20 articles in 2023, only for the state Senate to later acquit him on 16 and dismiss the other four. The Department of Justice, meanwhile, declined to pursue charges against Paxton in 2024, according to The Associated Press, effectively ending the federal investigation into the allegations two years after the department took over the case from authorities in Texas.
During Paxton’s impeachment trial in the state legislature, accusations of infidelity against him also took center stage. The impeachment prosecutor alleged that the real estate developer who allegedly bribed the state Attorney General hired Paxton’s girlfriend so that the two could meet in secret in Austin. Paxton’s wife Angela Paxton, a member of the state Senate, filed for divorce in 2025 on “biblical grounds.”
In a tweet on Tuesday, Paxton thanked the President for endorsing him and vowed to fight for Trump in the Senate.
“No one has ever fought harder for the American people than President Trump, and I look forward to championing his America First agenda in the Senate!” Paxton writes.
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