Sen. John Cornyn said Tuesday that “character is on the ballot” in his reelection race — and he warned that if Attorney General Ken Paxton knocks him out in the Texas GOP primary, Republicans could be in for a rough November.
The four‑term senator urged voters not to get comfortable, arguing that the party can’t afford to have Mr. Paxton leading the GOP ticket, insisting he is untrustworthy and carries too much personal and political baggage.
“If the attorney general is the top, at the top of the ballot, which is where the Senate race will be, we will have an Election Day massacre,” Mr. Cornyn said at a campaign stop with former Gov. Rick Perry on the first day of early primary voting. “Republicans up and down the ticket will pay the price of having an albatross like the corrupt attorney general hung around their neck.”
Mr. Cornyn warned that if Mr. Paxton becomes the party’s Senate nominee, Republicans could lose his seat — giving Democrats their first statewide win since 1994 — and drag down congressional candidates. That, he said, could jeopardize the House GOP’s slim majority and boost the chances that a new Democrat‑led House impeaches President Trump again and blocks his agenda.
“Ken Paxton is betting the character doesn’t matter,” he said. “The Texas Republican primary voters. I’m betting the opposite.”
The Cornyn team has been sounding that alarm for months. According to AdImpact, an independent campaign tracker, Mr. Cornyn and his allies have poured or reserved nearly $59 million in political ads, compared with just $2.3 million for Mr. Paxton.
Even with that huge spending advantage, the latest University of Houston poll shows Mr. Paxton leading Mr. Cornyn 39% to 31% ahead of the March 3 GOP primary, with Rep. Wesley Hunt at 17%.
If no one reaches 50%, the top two will head to a May runoff.
In hypothetical head‑to‑head runoff matchups from the same survey, Mr. Paxton leads Mr. Cornyn 51% to 40%, while Mr. Cornyn leads Mr. Hunt 46% to 39%. Mr. Hunt trails Mr. Paxton by an even wider 56% to 33% margin.
Mr. Paxton says Mr. Cornyn’s electability warnings are nothing new — and nothing he takes seriously.
“They’ve been saying that ever since I’ve been in office,” he recently said on Fox News. “If you look at President Trump, he’s gone through numerous legal battles, and I have also been successful, just like him. When you’re over the target, when you’re fighting, they come after you, and you can see every, every single legal battle I’ve won.”
Critics of Mr. Cornyn say he’s made similar electability arguments before — including about Mr. Trump.
“I think President Trump’s time has passed him by,” Mr. Cornyn said during a 2023 conference call with Texas reporters. “And I think what’s the most important thing for me is that we have a candidate who can actually win.”
“I don’t think President Trump understands that when you run in a general election, you have to appeal to voters beyond your base,” he said.
Since then, Mr. Cornyn has shifted his stance and become a vocal supporter of Mr. Trump’s agenda, putting him back in the president’s good graces.
Mr. Trump has yet to endorse anyone in the race, saying he likes all three Republicans.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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