Monday evening with Republican Party members in Denton County speak, Attorney -General Ken Paxton in TexasAn old ally of President Donald Trump, mentioned several Republicans who he plans to purify from the Texas Gop because he is insufficiently conservative.
Among those on the Paxton list, the Senior US Sen was. Van Texas Sen. John CornynOne of the most powerful members of the Senate Gop.
The crowd burst into loud applause, as Paxton said: “The second we should do, and I could play a role in this, John Cornyn has been replaced in the American Senate.”
Gary Peters, Democratic Senator from the state of Trump, will not seek re -election
The attorney -general, who collaborated with the Trump team to tighten a lawsuit in December successfully secured a judicial order Preventing the BIDEN administration to continue selling border wall materials has long suggested a potential run to replace Cornyn.
“I can’t think of any thing that he has reached for our state or even for the country,” Paxton said in an interview in September 2023 on the Fox News channel. And pointing to a possible senate run in 2026, Paxton said: “Someone has to get up and run against this man”, adding to it: “Everything is on the table for me.”
Attorney General Ken Paxton and the American senator John Cornyn, R-Texas. (Fox News Digital)
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Paxton gave more credibility to the rumors, despite “love what I do … I look potentially at the American Senate. “
He shared that he is in conversation with groups in Texas about a possible run from the Senate from 2026 and will probably decide in the “next few months”.
Paxton claimed that Cornyn does not represent the conservative values ​​of Texans and accused him of not being an ally of Trump.
He also regularly used Cornyn a “Rino”, a “Republican in name” and an insult Maga and “America First” Republicans, regularly used to criticize more mainstream or established members of De Gop.
Pete Buttigieg gives ‘Serious Look’ to 2026 Senate Run in Trump-Won Michigan
A flag of the state of Texas, attached to a bicycle waves in Austin, Texas, in 2015. (Reuters)
Another source near Paxton told FOX News Digital to the Attorney General “is planning to spend the coming months with voters, donors and basic activists in the whole state to gauge interest and decide how to best Texas can serve. “
The attorney general has confronted with his own challenges. In 2022 he defeated a primary effort of Former Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush In the midst of bribery and corruption. In 2023 the house of Texas representatives voted to accuse Paxton, but he was eventually acquitted of all charges by the Senate.
For his part, Cornyn, who has served in the Senate since 2002, is not planning to leave the Senate. After serving in important GOP leadership positions, including chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, of 2009-2013, and Senate Majority Whip, from 2015-2019, he he threw his hat in the ring to become the Senate majority leader in 2024Although he eventually lost to South Dakota Senator John Thune.
Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr. Is expected to do with opposition in the hearings of the senate confirmation
The US Senator John Cornyn of Texas is one of the leading Republicans in the Senate. (Getty Images)
Cornyn has meanwhile said that in 2026 he will run “absolutely” again.
In recent months he has also been a vocal supporter of Trump’s cabinet kitchen and has beaten Democrats for postponing confirmations for key positions. In a speech on the senate floor earlier this month, he said: “Our first and most urgent task is to confirm the nominees of President Trump for his cabinet.”
With both considered as leading Republicans and both considerable support, every potential primary race between the two in the Lone Star State promises to be a dramatic – perhaps messy – confrontation.
Senate will ‘continue to sharpen’ to have the Trump team confirmed, says John Thune
Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas, speaks at a press conference in Dallas 22 June 2017. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, file)
One of the most important questions that remains is whether the president would support his old ally Paxton or whether he would support a GOP institution in the interest of preserving party unit that was previously criticized as “weak” and “ineffective”.
“The big question is whether Trump would support Paxton about Cornyn in a primary challenge,” Matt MackowiakAn experienced Republican strategist and communication consultant based in Texas and Washington, DC, told Fox News Digital.
“Cornyn has never lost a race. Cornyn has a lot of support in the state. He has traveled all corners of the state for a long time and is very well known and is kept very well,” said Mackowiak. “We have not had a republican senator since Richard Lugar losing a primary in 2004.
“As many as people sometimes think that it is executable, think it is easy, think it is inevitable, it really doesn’t just happen. But I don’t say it can’t happen. I don’t say Paxton can’t win. I can’t win. Think he certainly has a considerable chance “
Speaker Johnson invites Trump to address the congress in the midst of busy first 100-day sprint
The dome of the American Capitol building in Washington, DC (Fox News Digital)
Click here to get the Fox News app
Mackowiak added that if Paxton runs, it “would be a huge race with national consequences.”
“You would have national activists and money on both sides,” he said. “It could ultimately be one of the largest primaries of the cycle and probably the most important primary in the entire state in Texas since DeWhurst-Cruz (then former Texas-Advocaat-General Ted Cruz Lt. David Dthurst defeated the Gop Senate -Nomination in 2012 and and route to winning his first elections of the US Senate) or it cannot come true at all.
