A Republican senator has branded his MAGA primary rival a “crooked home wrecker” in a blistering new ad accusing him of sleeping with a married mom-of-seven.
Sen. John Cornyn, 74, is fighting for his political life in the March 3 Texas Republican Senate primary against Texas Attorney General Paxton, 63, who leads him by 2.7 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average. Rep. Wesley Hunt is also in the race.
The new attack ad, aired by the joint fundraising committee of Cornyn and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, comes after conservatives, including veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove, warned that Texas Republicans could lose the Senate seat if Paxton wins the primary.
The ad’s narrator tells viewers to “cut through the bullsh–t,” declaring that “crooked Ken Paxton cheated on his wife” and that he is “now wrecking another home, sleeping around with a married mother of seven.”
It also claims that Paxton’s net worth has grown by as much as 7,000 percent since he took office and that he has directed millions of Texas tax dollars to left-wing organizations.
It cites as an example the Montrose Center, which the ad accuses of hosting drag queen performances and providing gender-affirming services to children as young as 7.
It warns, “Now think of the Paxton dirty deeds we don’t know about…yet,” billing the battle as a fight between “the wife cheater and fraud” and “the Texas workhorse.”
NRSC communications director Joanna Rodriguez said in a statement that what “Ken Paxton has put his family through is truly repulsive and disgusting,” in apparent reference to Angela Paxton’s decision to file for divorce on biblical grounds last summer.
Cornyn personally approved the spot, which closes with the senator urging voters to back him as the Border Patrol-endorsed candidate who voted with President Trump 99 percent of the time—and who “got the money to finish the damn wall.”
The scorched-earth tactics reflect a growing panic in Republican ranks. As Politico reported Thursday, national Republicans have already burned through nearly $100 million on TV advertising in the primary—yet Paxton has barely been dented.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who endorsed Cornyn, told the outlet that a Paxton nomination could put the seat in Democratic hands.
He warns that Republicans could be forced to divert hundreds of millions from battleground races in states like North Carolina, Georgia, and Michigan to defend a seat that has been reliably red since 1988.
“All signs indicate that Paxton probably finishes first,” one Washington GOP operative close to Cornyn told Politico.
A runoff on May 26 now looks near-certain, with some top donors privately warning there is “not a lot of cautious optimism” that Cornyn will even make it that far.
The woman at the center of the Paxton “home wrecking” allegations is Tracy Duhon, 57, a Louisiana-based author, grief counselor, and self-described Christian influencer.
The Daily Mail first reported last September that Paxton met Duhon—then still married to Troy Duhon, owner of the Premier Automotive dealership group—at the 2024 Kentucky Derby, and that the pair subsequently took multiple trips together across the country and overseas.
Duhon filed for divorce from her husband two months after the Derby.
Paxton’s office dismissed the report as the work of a “trash blog,” without specifically disputing its claims.
Cornyn’s campaign subsequently filed an open records request under the Texas Public Information Act, demanding Paxton’s travel records in an attempt to establish whether state funds were used for the alleged trips.
Paxton’s personal conduct has been a running sore in Texas Republican politics for years. His former chief of staff alleged during his 2023 impeachment proceedings that he had engaged in an extramarital affair—something Paxton himself had acknowledged in 2018.
In 2023, the Texas House voted to impeach him on corruption charges. The state Senate subsequently acquitted him on all counts.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Cornyn and Paxton’s campaigns for comment.
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