Texas Republicans’ bitter Senate primary will stretch into May, with Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton advancing to a runoff after neither candidate secured 50 percent of the vote Tuesday.
Cornyn led with 43 percent of the vote when The Associated Press called the race at 10:50 p.m. Eastern. Paxton had 40 percent. Rep. Wesley Hunt, the third leading candidate whose October entry into the race raised the likelihood of a runoff, failed to advance, earning 13 percent of the vote.
The May 26 runoff will extend what has already been a costly contest. Between both parties, this year’s Texas Senate race became the most expensive Senate primary on record, according to AdImpact. National Republicans worry that prolonging the battle between Cornyn and Paxton will drain money and resources from other competitive Senate contests.
Democratic voters, meanwhile, picked state Rep. James Talarico over Rep. Jasmine Crockett as their nominee for Senate. Talarico was leading with more than 53 percent of the vote after The Associated Press called the race at 2:37 a.m. Eastern.
Earlier in the night, a holdup over votes in Dallas County spurred Crockett to indicate late Tuesday that she did not plan to concede before she knew the results in that county.
Democrats see an opening in Texas, a state that has eluded the party in recent statewide elections despite some high-profile candidates raising millions of dollars. The primary between Talarico, who is a Presbyterian seminarian, and Crockett, whose feistiness in committee hearings and on social media helped shape her national profile, was more stylistic than substantive.
Talarico faces uphill climb to be the first Texas Democrat to win a Senate seat since Lloyd Bentsen was elected in 1988.
But the nominee, who often quotes Scripture on the campaign trail, has said that talking about his faith could help reach voters who don’t typically support Democrats. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called Talarico “the future of the Democratic Party.”
But Tuesday’s results could boost Democrats, because it drags out the bitter GOP battle for 12 more weeks. Minutes after the Republican primary was called, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released a digital ad warning Texans that “the circus is in town,” as the race advances to the runoff.
President Donald Trump has thus far not made an endorsement in the primary, but he said last week that he had “pretty much” decided whom he would back, meaning his support for one of the candidates could be forthcoming.
Trump’s potential endorsement has long hung over the race, as top Senate Republicans urged Trump to support Cornyn, who has stressed his support for Trump’s agenda although he wavered in his support for the president in the leadup to the 2024 election.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC with ties to GOP leaders and has backed Cornyn, blamed Hunt for launching a “career-ending vanity tour.”
“While Wesley’s amateur consultants got wealthy on his senseless campaign, Republican voters are now forced to endure an even longer primary runoff election,” Alex Latcham, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.
For most of his career, Cornyn has handily won his elections. His most recent reelection effort was a 10-point victory in 2020.
But the 2026 contest is his first campaign following the passage of a bipartisan update to the nation’s gun laws, which Cornyn negotiated with Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn. The measure came together with the support of Senate leaders in the aftermath of several mass shootings in 2022, including one at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Cornyn’s support of the measure became a point of attack for Paxton, who painted Cornyn as a creature of Washington and argued that he is out of step with the state’s current Republican party. Paxton has portrayed himself as a pugnacious defender of conservative causes while accusing Cornyn of betraying the president.
Paxton said Cornyn and his allies significantly outspent him. “Tomorrow, we show John Cornyn he can waste whatever amount he wants, but unlike him, Texas voters can’t be bought,’’ Paxton said in a post on social media.
But Cornyn has criticized Paxton for ethical issues, including allegations of infidelity, and argued that Paxton is a flawed candidate who can’t win a general election. “I think he’ll be an albatross around the neck of all of the Republican candidates,” Cornyn said at a press conference. “Character is on the ballot … much of that has come out, but there’s much more that will come out in the runoff.”
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race as Likely Republican.
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