President Trump endorsed Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, for Senate on Tuesday, dealing a blow to Senator John Cornyn in the final week of their primary race.
Facing a tough challenge from Mr. Paxton and the right-wing Republican base, Mr. Cornyn had been banking on the president’s support ahead of a runoff election next Tuesday.
Mr. Trump had initially considered backing Mr. Cornyn after the first primary vote in early March — a statement had even been drafted — but in the end he went with Mr. Paxton, who has been a Trump ally for years.
“Ken Paxton has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next United States Senator from the Great State of Texas,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social, hailing his “Loyalty to the Cause of Greatness.”
Senate leaders and national Republicans see Mr. Paxton as the far weaker candidate in a general election and had urged Mr. Trump to support Mr. Cornyn, hoping to avert the political costs of an expensive and bruising runoff race. Party leaders have warned that it could cost $100 million to elect the scandal-singed Mr. Paxton, who has survived indictment, impeachment and accusations of marital infidelity.
Mr. Cornyn had pulled out all the stops to woo Mr. Trump, including introducing legislation last week proposing to rename a highway Interstate 47 in honor of Mr. Trump. “1,800 miles of open road to forever be known as the Trump Interstate,” Mr. Cornyn wrote on social media, adding an American flag emoji.
It proved all for naught.
Mr. Trump, in his lengthy post on Truth Social, called Mr. Cornyn a “good man” but said he “was not supportive of me when times were tough” and criticized him for being “very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination” in 2024.
Democrats have nominated James Talarico, a state legislator and seminarian who has made outreach to independent voters a central part of his pitch. He has also emerged as one of his party’s best fund-raisers.
But Mr. Trump has been dismissive of Mr. Talarico’s chances, seizing on viral videos of old comments that the Democratic nominee made in support of liberal positions.
“I think the Democrats have a weird, a weird candidate,” Mr. Trump said recently on Air Force One. “Six genders, a real hit on Jesus.” He referred to an old remark in which Mr. Talarico said a previous campaign had been “vegan.”
“Texas doesn’t like vegans,” Mr. Trump added, mispronouncing the word. (Mr. Talarico is not vegan.)
One person close to Mr. Trump said the president’s belief that Mr. Talarico was a weaker candidate had given him more freedom to consider backing Mr. Paxton, despite the warnings of other Republican leaders.
Mr. Cornyn, who is seeking a fifth term, finished narrowly ahead of Mr. Paxton in the first round of the primary on March 3. The senator and his allies spent more than $70 million on ads to ensure that he made the runoff. He had 42 percent of the vote to Mr. Paxton’s 40.5 percent, and because no candidate earned a majority, a runoff was set for May 26.
Another $15 million has been spent by super PACs in the two months since the first round of the primary, federal records show.
Mr. Trump had hinted on social media the day after the primary that an endorsement was coming — and called for the other candidate to drop out. The presumption at the time had been that he was sending a warning to Mr. Paxton.
But the endorsement did not arrive immediately.
Instead, Mr. Paxton executed a bold gambit. He said he would “consider dropping out” — but only if Senate Republicans circumvented the filibuster to pass Mr. Trump’s top priority, a bill that would impose strict voter identification requirements.
Mr. Paxton even texted Mr. Trump his statement himself, ensuring that the president saw it, and he later spoke with the president at Mar-a-Lago, according to people familiar with the episodes. His allies warned that the MAGA base would object — and that Mr. Cornyn might still lose, even with Mr. Trump’s support. Democrats circulated polls showing that the endorsement wouldn’t guarantee Mr. Cornyn victory in the Republican primary.
Meanwhile, Mr. Paxton hammered Mr. Cornyn over his long-held position that the filibuster should be protected, calling him a “coward.” Mr. Cornyn eventually relented, embracing the rule change.
But it was not enough to secure Mr. Trump’s support.
Mr. Paxton has long demonstrated his loyalty to Mr. Trump. He filed a lawsuit to invalidate the results in swing states that Mr. Trump lost in the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Cornyn, in contrast, was a skeptic not just of those efforts but also of Mr. Trump’s comeback attempt in 2024.
But Senator John Thune, the majority leader — and a host of other Republican senators — had lobbied Mr. Trump to back Mr. Cornyn, in an effort to avoid more spending in an acrimonious runoff. Mr. Thune told reporters in the Capitol in early March that “if the president can weigh in, it would be enormously helpful.”
“It saves everybody a lot of money,” Mr. Thune said.
Mr. Trump’s support had always been seen as crucial for Mr. Cornyn. He hired a top Trump pollster, Tony Fabrizio, for his own team, and one of Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign managers, Chris LaCivita, is the top strategist for a pro-Cornyn super PAC.
The amount of money spent in the first round of voting to support Mr. Cornyn broke records for a Senate incumbent in a primary, according to the media tracking service AdImpact.
Tim Balk contributed reporting.
Shane Goldmacher is a Times national political correspondent.
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