Sen. John Cornyn said Tuesday he will not campaign for Republican nominee Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race this fall, delivering a one-word answer — "No" — when asked directly whether he would stump for the man who defeated him in the primary and ended his bid for reelection.
Cornyn, a four-term incumbent who lost his primary to Paxton after President Donald Trump backed the attorney general, said he will vote for Paxton. "I'm going to support the ticket," Cornyn said. But he left no room for ambiguity about what that support excludes.
He also made clear his primary-season attacks were not something he plans to walk back. "Everything I've said about him in the primary is true," Cornyn said. During that race, Cornyn called Paxton a "con man," a "fraud" and a "flawed, self-centered, and shameless candidate."
The refusal to actively campaign creates a practical problem for Paxton heading into November. Cornyn spent four terms building a donor and voter base across Texas, and Paxton needs those voters to hold the seat. Democrat James Talarico is competing hard for them. Paxton's own former defense attorney has already endorsed Talarico — a stark signal of the intra-party fractures Paxton is managing.
Leadership-aligned Republicans in Washington had heavily backed Cornyn in the primary. Senate Majority Leader John Thune formally supported Cornyn before Paxton's win. Since the primary, Thune and allied senators have moved to support Paxton, and the contest is rated a "lean Republican" seat. But Democrats are prepared to spend heavily on Talarico, and a Talarico victory would move the seat into the Democratic column at a moment when Senate control is contested.
Cornyn previewed a posture of selective independence from Trump going forward, saying he will weigh the president's agenda "on a case-by-case basis." He specifically named a nearly $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund" assembled by the administration — which Cornyn indicated could benefit U.S. Capitol rioters — as an area of concern. He also broke with Trump over the president's choice to lead the nation's intelligence community.
A push Cornyn had championed before the primary to designate U.S. Route 287 as "Trump Interstate" is no longer among his priorities, a small but visible sign of how his relationship with the White House has shifted since the primary loss.
Cornyn framed his independence as consistent with wanting the party to succeed. "I'm going to try to help the president because I want him to succeed. I want the Republican Party to succeed. I want the country to succeed," he said. "But on a case-by-case basis, when I think there's been overreach, or just a bad idea, I'm not going to hesitate to weigh in."
He closed with a direct appeal for party cohesion, even as his own conduct toward Paxton illustrates the limits of it. "I think it's important for the country that we maintain the majority," Cornyn said. "But first, we need to stop the circular firing squads and focus on Democrats."
The Paxton campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The Texas Senate seat is shaping up as one of the most expensive races in the country. Republicans hold a structural advantage in statewide Texas elections, but the combination of Cornyn's cold shoulder, Paxton's ongoing legal baggage and Talarico's well-funded campaign gives Democrats an opening they have not had in a Texas Senate race in years.
