John Cornyn, the senior senator from Texas fighting a challenge from the right, chose not attend one of the most influential gatherings of conservatives in the country this past weekend. But if Mr. Cornyn was hoping his absence would go unnoticed, he was wrong.
Taking the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Texas, on Friday, Steve Bannon told the crowd that Mr. Cornyn thought of the event as beneath him. Mr. Bannon, a former adviser to President Trump, said this was one of the reasons voters should choose Ken Paxton, the far-right attorney general of Texas, to replace Mr. Cornyn in the upcoming runoff election for U.S. Senate.
“Cornyn’s not coming. You know why? He didn’t think you were important enough to talk to,” Mr. Bannon said. The crowd, decked out in flag shirts and MAGA hats, made their feelings about Mr. Cornyn known. “Boo!” they roared.
It wasn’t the first time Mr. Cornyn would be booed. Minutes later, his name was evoked again. He was booed. Then it happened again. And again.
CPAC gathers the most fervent conservative and far right activists. Speakers included cabinet secretaries and conservative influencers, podcasters and pundits. This year’s conference had a particularly Texas twang; there were cowboy hats and custom leather work for sale. Inside the resort, about half an hour from Dallas, there is a replica of the Alamo and an indoor stream, meant to mimic the San Antonio River Walk.
CPAC this year was also marked by division. Over the Iran war. Over cancel culture. Over the future of the MAGA movement. But when it came to the U.S. Senate race, the attendees were largely united: They liked Mr. Paxton.
On Friday, Mr. Paxton swept through the conference with the confidence and ease of someone among friends. As the keynote speaker at CPAC’s premier event, the Ronald Reagan dinner that night, Mr. Paxton leaned into his opponent’s absence to make his pitch for the job.
“I have been looking for someone since I got here earlier today, and I was wondering if y’all could help me find this guy. I heard he was invited,” Mr. Paxton said, to laughs from the room. “So, has anybody seen John Cornyn here?”
Matt Schlapp, CPAC’s chairman, did invite Mr. Cornyn to attend. But the welcome, of sorts, was blunted by Mr. Schlapp’s own repeated praise for Mr. Paxton.
Matt Mackowiak, a spokesman for Mr. Cornyn’s campaign, attributed the senator’s absence to important work in Washington to secure homeland security funding and voting access legislation. The Senate finished its votes on those items on Friday.
Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Paxton were pushed into a runoff when neither was able to win an outright majority in the primary election. Mr. Cornyn came in first and Wesley Hunt, a Houston congressman and close Donald Trump ally, came in a distant third. Mr. Trump has not endorsed a candidate in the race.
The two months until runoff Election Day are expected to be a all-out brawl. Mr. Cornyn, who was elected to the Senate in 2002, has highlighted Mr. Paxton’s many scandals while in elected office. Mr. Paxton has painted Mr. Cornyn as insufficiently conservative and inadequately supportive of the president.Countering this narrative, Mr. Mackowiak said Mr. Cornyn has voted with Mr. Trump 99.3 percent of the time and that only he can beat James Talarico, the Democratic nominee whose message of compassionate Christianity his supporters hope will bring some Republicans onto their side.
“Senator Cornyn over-performed all expectations by winning the primary,” Mr. Mackowiak said in a statement. “We have a plan to win the runoff and we are executing it.”
While CPAC does not provide an accurate snapshot of the entirety of the G.O.P. voting base, its attendees are a representative sample of some of the party’s most activist primary voters.
Conference organizers polled attendees on the Senate race and found that 67 percent said they would vote for Mr. Paxton; 21 percent were for Mr. Cornyn and 12 percent were unsure.
To learn more about the preferences of Texas voters at the conference, The New York Times spoke with two dozen attendees who said they voted in Texas elections. All but four said they supported Mr. Paxton. Two were undecided.
None said they cared that Mr. Paxton had been repeatedly accused of corruption or that he had had two alleged affairs, including one that led to his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filing for divorce last year.
“I didn’t vote for him to be my pastor,” Bob Hall, a state senator, said on Friday.
Richard McBride of Houston said he would vote for Mr. Cornyn, saying that he believed Mr. Paxton’s baggage would be dead weight in the matchup against Mr. Talarico. .
“Moderates and Independents won’t vote for Ken Paxton,” Mr. McBride said.
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