Trump endorses Ken Paxton in Texas GOP Senate primary

President Donald Trump is finally taking sides in the expensive and contentious Republican Senate race in Texas between longtime Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The president on Tuesday, in a long-awaited announcement, endorsed Paxton, a MAGA champion. The president’s powerful endorsement came one week before a trial between Cornyn and Paxton in right-leaning Texas.

“Ken is a true MAGA Hero who ALWAYS delivers to Texas, and will continue to do so in the US Senate,” Trump wrote on social media.

The two fierce rivals beat a crowded field in early March, but with no one clearing the 50% threshold, the nomination race went into overtime, with a runoff election on May 26.

Trump has scoffed at his long-awaited approval of his big ballroom, which is still under construction as the Senate considers providing hundreds of millions in defense funding for the project. He decided that now was the time to approve, after several months of neutrality, because early voting for next week’s election was now open.

“There are those who say that whoever approves of me will win,” Trump said. “I don’t know if that’s true, but historically, that’s true. I don’t like to say it because I don’t like to brag.”

Cornyn or Paxton will face off in the general election against Rep. James Talarico of the Democratic Party, who holds the reins of Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a critic of Trump, in the primary Democrats. Talarico is trying to become the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate election in right-leaning Texas.

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This year’s Senate race in Texas is one of a handful across the country that could determine whether Republicans hold a majority in the chamber in the midterm elections. The GOP currently controls the Senate 53-47.

The president took to social media the day after the March primary to say that recommendations will be released soon and that “he will be asking the person I am not recommending to GET OUT OF JOB!”

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And multiple sources at the time told Fox News and other news organizations that Cornyn might have the president’s support.

Hours later, Paxton said he would stay in the race for the Republican Senate nomination even if Trump endorsed Cornyn.

Asked if she would drop her Senate bid if Trump endorsed Cornyn, Paxton, a MAGA firebrand and longtime Trump supporter with her partner, said no in an interview with Real America’s Voice.

“I spent a year of my life campaigning for John Cornyn because John did not represent the people of Texas well,” Paxton said. “He was against Trump in both of his elections, he said he shouldn’t run for the last time …. The people of Texas, at least the Republicans, would like something different.”

Asked about Paxton’s comments, Trump said a day later in an interview with Politico, “Well, it’s bad that he didn’t say it… maybe that would sway me in the other direction,” the president added.

THE CONTENTIOUS REPUBLICAN SENATE PRIMARY IN TEXAS GOES TO OVERTIME

In a twist, Paxton said a few hours later that he would “consider dropping out of this race if the Senate leadership agrees to lift the filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act.”

The bill, officially known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, if passed into law, would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. The GOP-backed bill passed the Republican-controlled House but faces legal roadblocks in the Senate over opposition from Democrats.

“The Save America Act is the most important bill the US Senate will ever pass, and I am committed to helping President Trump get it done,” Paxton wrote on social media.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican representing the U.S. Senate, speaks during a primary election viewing party Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Dallas. (Julio Cortez/AP Photo)

“For the benefit of our country and for the good of President Trump’s plan to be passed, I am willing to help him do this,” he added.

And Paxton charged, “John Cornyn is a coward who refused to support a filibuster to pass this bill.”

Trump’s approval did not come for the following days and weeks, and the ‘Save America Act’ is still stalled in Congress.

I Cornyn campaign and aligned PACs spent nearly $100 million in the primary campaign running ads attacking Paxton and Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt – who came in third – with the senator charging in the closing weeks of the campaign that Democrats would flip the seat in the general election if Paxton was nominated by the GOP.

Cornyn, his associates and National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, has repeatedly pointed to the slew of scandals and legal troubles that have dogged Paxton over the past decade, as well as his ongoing divorce.

“Over the next 12 weeks, Texas Republican primary voters will hear more about my record of delivering strong victories in the United States Senate, and learn more about Ken’s indefensible behavior and failures at work,” Cornyn told reporters Tuesday night.

“As a primary, we have a plan to overcome the runoff, and we are in the process of ending it,” said Cornyn. “Judgment day is coming for Ken Paxton.”

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks during a campaign stop in The Woodlands, Texas, Feb. 28, 2026. (Annie Mulligan/AP Photo)

Paxton, who has gained national attention over the past dozen years for filing lawsuits against the Obama and Biden administrations, told his supporters on the first night, “As we get into this process, we’re going to make the choice even clearer. While John Cornyn was cutting gun control and amnesty deals, I was suing the crooked Joe Biden over 107 times.”

And he charged, “John Cornyn spent about $100 million trying to buy this seat. We spent about five million dollars.”

In a social media post, Paxton suggested, “The truth is clear: There is no one more loyal to Donald Trump than me—he fought the stolen 2020 election, was at Mar-a-Lago when he announced his 2024 campaign, and stood with him in New York when he faced legal action.”

Second Round CORNYN VS. PAXTON CONTINUES

Trump, as the Texas race moves forward, pleaded, “for the good of the Party, and our country, itself, is allowed to continue. IT MUST BE DONE NOW!”

And pointing to Talarico, the president argued, “We have an easy-to-defeat winner, against the Far Left, and we must TURN AWAY from rejecting him, quickly and clearly.”

State Rep. James Talarico, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks at a primary election watch party Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Eric Gay/AP)

“Both John and Ken ran great races, but not well enough. Now, this one, must be PERFECT!” Trump warned.

Trump, who still holds sway over the GOP, has remained neutral in the Republican primary race. All three candidates, who were seeking the president’s endorsement, attended the conference shortly before Trump held the event. Corpus Christi, Texas.

“They’re in a little race together,” Trump said of Cornyn and Paxton. “You know that, right? It’s a little race. It’s going to be fun, right? They’re both great people, too.”

Helping Cornyn secure the president’s endorsement was a powerful lobbying campaign by Senate Republican leaders.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., told reporters the next day that Cornyn had a “good night” against Paxton. The top Senate Republican has spent the past few months bending Trump’s ear to every opportunity to jump into the race and restore the longtime incumbent.

“You have a chance to win the race, and if the president agrees early, it saves everybody a lot of money, and a lot of, you know, just another 10 weeks of intense campaigning on our side that keeps us from spending time focusing on the Democrats,” Thune said.

Thune spoke with Cornyn the day after the primary, and he believes Talarico was the Republicans’ toughest game of November — one that Cornyn was better suited to win.

“A good comparison for us is John Cornyn at the top of the ticket,” Thune said.

NRSC communications director Joanna Rodriguez told Fox News Digital, “John Cornyn remains the only candidate making sure Rep. Talarico never becomes a United States senator and making sure the battle for President Trump’s Senate majority is fought in real states, not Texas.”

And the Thune-Aligned Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), the top PAC supporting Senate Republicans, which spent millions on Cornyn’s behalf in the primary campaign, made it clear in a statement earlier Wednesday that it would continue to support the senator in the election.

“SLF and its sister organizations have been proud to support Senator Cornyn early on, and we look forward to him winning the Republican nomination on May 26,” the group’s executive director, Alex Latcham, said in a statement.

At the time, a GOP political operative on Trump’s trail told Fox News Digital, “Talarico being the nominee makes President Trump’s endorsement of Cornyn more important than ever.”

While Trump was neutral in the heated campaign, his top pollster, Tony Fabrizio, helped Cornyn’s campaign. And veteran Republican strategist Chris LaCivita, who served as co-campaign manager for Trump’s 2024 White House bid, consulted with a top PAC aligned with Cornyn.

But on Paxton’s side of the playing field, operatives and donors were confident they could unseat the senator.

Dan Eberhart, an oil executive and a prominent Republican donor who supports Paxton, told Fox News Digital, “This was Cornyn’s shot at protecting his opponent by getting over 50%, and he couldn’t do it.

Pointing to former longtime Senate GOP leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a frequent Trump foil, Eberhart said, “This race is about MAGA vs. McConnell.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks to supporters at a campaign event on the eve of the primary, in Waco, Texas on March 2, 2026. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

Meanwhile, Lone Star Liberty, a pro-Paxton super PAC, circulated a memo ahead of the primary that backed off threats that Cornyn would win the race by continuing to grill the attorney general about his many scandals, saying he had nothing new to offer.

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“Cornyn’s talk of ‘unleashing’ a new attack on competition is unfounded,” the memo said. “The truth is that from day one, his soldiers fired all the ammunition they had. There are no new attacks left – more of the same, with ever-higher costs and ever-diminishing returns.”

Fox News’ Rich Edson and Patrick Ward contributed to this report