Ken Paxton didn’t just beat John Cornyn in Tuesday’s Texas Senate primary — he may have put Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on notice.
That was the takeaway on the Charlie Kirk Show Wednesday, where hosts Andrew Kolvet and Blake Neff broke down what Paxton’s crushing victory means for the broader MAGA movement — and which Republican senators should be worried heading into 2026.
Kolvet didn’t mince words when the conversation turned to Graham, who faces a June 9 primary despite holding Trump’s endorsement.
“If I’m Lindsey Graham, I am, in the words of Jeremy Carl, sweating bullets today,” Kolvet said, “because the base has an instinct of who actually represents the America First principles that we all ascribe to and espouse. And they can smell a fraud.”
Carl is a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute and a former Trump Interior Department official.
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX), a 119th Congress class member and guest on the show, argued that the Paxton race sent a clear message about what MAGA voters actually want — politicians who fight the same way in private as they do in public.
“If you’re going to support the Save America Act but not support a talking filibuster, both publicly and behind closed doors, that’s not good enough anymore,” Gill said.
Graham has long struggled to convince the GOP base that his conversion from McCain-style maverick to Trump ally is genuine. He was booed at a Trump rally in his home state, and his job approval sat at 38% among South Carolinians as of late last year.
Kolvet acknowledged that Trump’s endorsement is powerful but argued it wasn’t the decisive factor in Texas.
“I actually believe that Paxton would have won without Trump’s endorsement,” he said. “The base will come out if you give them a reason to in midterms.”
Neff was more blunt in his thoughts about Cornyn: “He’s a fossil.”
Graham’s primary is June 9.
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