Top GOP senator set to face tough challenge as MAGA attorney general jumps into race

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is declaring his candidacy in the Senate primary against longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, reported Punchbowl News' John Bresnahan.

The move sets up what could potentially become one of the most expensive and bruising primary battles of the 2026 Senate elections.

The development has been widely rumored and expected in Texas political circles for months, as Paxton and Cornyn have stepped up attacks on each other in anticipation of the challenge. Cornyn has highlighted Paxton's long record of accused criminal misconduct, and Paxton has painted Cornyn as insufficiently loyal to Trump.

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Cornyn, who himself previously served as attorney general of Texas before first being elected to the Senate in 2002, launched his re-election bid early last month, proclaiming in his kickoff advertisement, "Senator John Cornyn is launching his 2026 re-election campaign. President Trump needs a battle-tested partner by his side in Washington. The radical left thinks they can flip Texas blue, but Texans have a message for them – come and take it."

Paxton is a notorious extreme culture warrior who has worked to crush abortion providers in Texas, launched personal vendetta campaigns to unseat state house lawmakers behind his impeachment two years ago, and led a legally frivolous attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which Trump signed onto at the time.

It remains uncertain who Democrats will run to contest the race in Texas, where they have not won a statewide election since the 1990s. Democrats have made gains with voters over the past two decades but are currently reeling from a worse-than-expected performance in the 2024 presidential contest. Former Dallas Congressman Collin Allred, who challenged Sen. Ted Cruz in the previous cycle, has expressed possible interest in another bid.