Trump-backed Ken Paxton defeats John Cornyn in Texas Republican Senate runoff

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has defeated four-term Senator John Cornyn in the Republican runoff for U.S. Senate, handing President Donald Trump’s preferred candidate a decisive victory and setting up a general election contest that Republicans had hoped would be easy but now looks more complicated. According to Bloomberg and the Independent, Paxton’s win came after Trump endorsed him just a week earlier, and the result has raised fresh concerns inside the GOP about whether Texas could become more competitive for Democrats than it has been in decades.

Paxton’s victory is notable not only because Cornyn is one of the state’s longest-serving Republican senators, but also because Paxton enters the race with significant political baggage. The Independent reported that Republicans had feared the scandal-plagued attorney general could put the seat at risk, even though Democrats have not won a Texas Senate race in nearly 40 years. That history still makes Texas a difficult target for Democrats, but Paxton’s candidacy appears to have reopened a race many in the party had assumed would remain safely Republican.

Trump’s endorsement was central to the contest. Search results from the campaign coverage indicate that Paxton’s win followed a direct intervention by Trump, who has worked to unseat Republican officials he sees as insufficiently loyal. That backing helped Paxton consolidate support in the runoff and overcome Cornyn, who had long represented the more traditional wing of the Texas Republican Party.

The outcome matters because it reshapes the strategic landscape for both parties ahead of the general election. Republicans had viewed Cornyn as the safer nominee, while Democrats see Paxton as a potentially weaker opponent because of his controversies and repeated legal and political battles. Bloomberg’s coverage highlighted the scale of Paxton’s victory and the broader implication that Texas may now be more firmly in play than before.

For Democrats, the opening is significant even if the state remains a long shot. Texas has a large and diverse electorate, and any sign of Republican division at the top of the ticket can create opportunities in a state where statewide Democratic wins have been elusive. For Republicans, the challenge is whether they can unify behind Paxton or risk a contested race that forces them to spend time and money defending a seat they had expected to hold comfortably.

What happens next will likely depend on how Paxton defines himself in the general election and how aggressively Democrats choose to invest in the race. Bloomberg’s audio reports framed the runoff win alongside broader geopolitical developments, but in Texas politics, the immediate consequence is clear: a high-profile Republican seat that once looked secure is now drawing national attention.