发布时间：2026年3月1日，美国东部时间上午5:00 / 更新时间：1小时59分钟前
作者：[马努·拉朱]、[艾莉森·梅因]、[莎拉·费里斯]
休斯顿报道——
参议员约翰·科宁最近在休斯顿的电视摄像机前亮相，向威胁要夺走他执掌近24年的席位的肯·帕克斯顿发出警告：情况即将变得糟糕得多。
“在我们解决掉这位总检察长（在潜在的决选中）之后，”科宁表示，“他将无法当选。”
科宁和他的盟友已经投入数千万美元的攻击性广告，指控这位三届州总检察长存在腐败和个人谋利行为。在初选的最后几天，科宁的核心信息猛烈抨击帕克斯顿不忠，指责他“与一名有七个孩子的已婚母亲厮混”，这一说法美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）尚未证实。
“我们才刚刚开始，”科宁在上周活动结束后的一次采访中说道，“到结束时，德克萨斯州民众会了解到关于候选人的一切必要信息，包括肯·帕克斯顿。”
但这场竞选也揭示了科宁的另一面。在参议院任职二十多年，一路稳步晋升，支持保守政策的同时也参与两党合作的科宁，正在摒弃这段历史。尽管多年来他与特朗普时有分歧，如今却将自己塑造为特朗普总统坚定的盟友，并投入巨资试图拖垮帕克斯顿。
然而，到目前为止，这些攻击并未对帕克斯顿的地位造成太大影响。
民调显示，帕克斯顿在包括共和党众议员韦斯利·亨特在内的三人竞选中领先。周二的初选几乎肯定会在5月的决选中由得票前两名决出胜负，这预示着一场长期的战役，共和党人估计除了科宁及其盟友已花费的约1亿美元外，还将再投入2亿美元。
帕克斯顿在初选结束阶段推出了一个全州范围的电视广告，由他的女儿旁白，旨在反驳科宁的人身攻击。帕克斯顿在一份声明中预测，科宁的施压会适得其反，“不像约翰·科宁那样，他已沦为一个不顾一切想保住权力的可怜虫，我的竞选不是要攻击别人的家庭。”
在接受美国有线电视新闻网采访时，帕克斯顿呼应了特朗普关于自己是报复性起诉受害者的说法。
“特朗普经历了完全相同的事情，看看他现在的处境，”他在一场挤满戴着“让美国再次伟大”帽子的选民的竞选集会上说道，“我也会如此。我们克服了所有这些。你们可以编造任何谎言，但指控就是指控，而真相就是真相。”
科宁在竞选路上仍带着一项两党协议
2022年夏天，当美国总统乔·拜登在白宫为一群议员举办庆祝活动时，他感谢他们帮助通过了数十年来首部全国性枪支安全法案。
其中就包括科宁，他在得克萨斯州乌瓦尔德小学枪击事件（造成19名儿童和2名教师死亡）后几周内大力推动该法案。这是科宁四届任期中达成的众多两党协议之一，同时他也一贯投票支持共和党优先事项。
“我希望提到你的名字不会给你带来麻烦，”拜登当时打趣科宁。
确实如此。多年后，科宁对拜登促成的枪支妥协方案的支持，仍然是其对手抨击的主要问题之一。
在该协议最终敲定期间，他在得克萨斯州共和党代表大会上遭到嘘声，并被特朗普当时称为“RINO”（名义上的共和党人）。
“我从未被拜登感谢过，”帕克斯顿最近在德克萨斯州最保守地区之一的马格诺利亚市对一群支持者说道，他指责科宁促成了“可能是几十年来最严格的枪支法案”。
同一周，在200英里外的得克萨斯州泰勒市，亨特指责科宁在华盛顿待了二十年后“忘记了德克萨斯州民众真正想要什么”——因为只有这样才能“在得克萨斯州通过枪支管制立法”，引得人群哄笑。
当被问及枪支安全法是否是个负累（因为他在竞选活动中很少提及）时，科宁暗示对手们言不由衷，并为自己在立法中的角色辩护。
“任何守法的枪支拥有者或公民都没有被剥夺获得枪支的权利，”他表示，“我认为我们挽救了生命。”
他否认对支持该法案有任何后悔，该法案加强了背景审查并为学校安全和心理健康计划提供资金，他坚称对手向其他共和党人误导了该法案的好处。
“不幸的是，很容易对我们做了什么和没做什么撒谎……我希望两党能达成共识，即枪支不应该落入精神疾病患者或罪犯手中，”科宁补充说，他本人是枪支拥有者和猎人，“我将坚决捍卫第二修正案权利。”
特朗普未参与竞选
总统背书的争夺是这场三人角逐的核心特征。但尽管数月来帕克斯顿恳求，甚至他本人前往苏格兰短暂与特朗普在高尔夫球场会面，总统却刻意保持距离，称他与三人都有友谊。
科宁与参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩及他的首席副手约翰·巴拉萨一起，多次向特朗普呼吁提名帕克斯顿的潜在后果。他们告诉总统，他们将不得不花费巨额资金帮助这位总检察长对抗最终的民主党候选人（要么是詹姆斯·塔拉利科，要么是贾丝明·克罗克特）。科宁表示，帕克斯顿的参选会损害德克萨斯州共和党候选人，实际上让民主党更容易拿下众议院并发起对特朗普的弹劾。
“所以我认为我们已经向他说明了‘商业理由’，”科宁向美国有线电视新闻网谈及特朗普时表示，“这不是基于情感，也不是关于我，而是我认为，如果我是候选人，共和党人和总统及其议程会好得多。如果肯·帕克斯顿是候选人，那将是一场灾难。”
上周，当特朗普走进众议院参加国情咨文演讲时，数十名共和党人挤在过道上与他短暂拥抱或合影。得克萨斯州议员特洛伊·内尔斯利用与总统短暂交谈的机会，宣传他的老朋友帕克斯顿，距离该州重要初选还有一周。
“肯在这里，他会赢，”据知情人士透露，内尔斯对总统说。
帕克斯顿飞往华盛顿聆听特朗普的演讲，部分原因是为了帮助议员们正式认识这位在国会山试图击败的人。同一周，帕克斯顿接受采访时讨论了与华盛顿共和党领袖合作的可能性，这与他一贯攻击“华盛顿建制派”的立场大相径庭。
决选中会发生什么？
科宁的目标是说服共和党选民和捐赠者，在决选中支持他将为党内节省大量资金，否则他们将不得不为保住席位和维持参议院共和党多数而投入巨资。
科宁已结婚近50年，他寄望于决选将围绕性格问题展开。他计划全力利用帕克斯顿与州参议员安吉拉·帕克斯顿婚姻破裂的公开化——安吉拉因“宗教原因”以通奸为由提起离婚诉讼（法院已裁定未来离婚诉讼将公开，科宁的盟友警告这将成为决选的焦点）。
“如果他自己的家人都不信任他，你也不能信任他，”科宁上周在休斯顿表示，“我不能信任他。”
即使竞选进入决选阶段，周二的最终计票结果对科宁的未来也至关重要。如果他以远低于预期的第二名结束，华盛顿的共和党高层将面临巨大压力，考虑是否撤回资源，转而投入其他战场州。
“尚未确定，”图恩周四被问及全国共和党会在决选中投入多少资金支持科宁时对美国有线电视新闻网表示，“这是我们希望避免的情况之一。”
亨特和帕克斯顿都指责共和党高层为支持处境艰难的现任议员而挥霍资金。
在东得克萨斯州一次竞选活动中，亨特表示，用于支持科宁的资金简直是“疯狂”。
“你们已经在约翰·科宁身上花了一张强力球彩票的钱，还会花更多，”亨特指共和党高层，“你有一位24年的资深议员，很明显，基本盘已经抛弃了他。”
亨特补充道：“如果你在初选中都如此艰难，你如何在决选中幸存？那比初选更偏向极右翼。”
美国有线电视新闻网的凯西·里德尔对此报道亦有贡献。
John Cornyn goes scorched earth to try to save his Senate seat
PUBLISHED Mar 1, 2026, 5:00 AM ET / UPDATED 1 hr 59 min ago
By [Manu Raju], [Alison Main], [Sarah Ferris]
Houston—
Sen. John Cornyn stood before TV cameras in Houston recently and issued a warning to Ken Paxton, the man threatening to take the seat he’s held for nearly two dozen years: Things were about to get a whole lot uglier.
“After we get through with the attorney general” in a potential runoff, Cornyn said, “he’s going to be unelectable.”
Cornyn and his allies had already poured tens of millions of dollars in attack ads accusing the three-term state attorney general of corruption and personal enrichment. Cornyn’s closing message, in the final days of the primary, blasts Paxton for infidelity, accusing him of “sleeping around with a married mother of seven,” a claim CNN has not verified.
“We are just getting started,” Cornyn said in an interview after the event last week. “By the time it’s over, Texans will know everything they need to know about the candidates, including Ken Paxton.”
But the campaign has revealed something about Cornyn too. After more than two decades in the Senate, cordially climbing the rungs, backing conservative policies but also working on bipartisan deals, Cornyn is putting aside that history. He’s presenting himself as a stalwart ally of President Donald Trump — despite periodically breaking with him over the years — and spending furiously to try to drag Paxton down.
Yet those attacks haven’t done much to dent Paxton’s standing so far.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during a campaign event on February 16 in Tyler, Texas.
Julio Cortez/AP
Polls show Paxton leading a three-way race that also includes GOP Rep. Wesley Hunt. The Tuesday primary is all but certain to end up in a May runoff with the top two vote-getters, setting up a long battle that Republicans estimate could cost $200 million on top of the roughly $100 million already spent mostly by Cornyn and his allies.
Paxton is closing the primary with a statewide TV ad narrated by his daughter, aiming to rebut Cornyn’s character attacks. Paxton predicted that Cornyn’s push would backfire with voters, saying in a statement, “Unlike John Cornyn, who’s become a desperate shell of a man clinging to power, my campaign is not about attacking someone else’s family.”
Speaking to CNN, Paxton echoed claims from Trump of being a victim of vindictive prosecutions.
“Trump went through the very same thing, and look where he’s at,” he said at a campaign stop packed with voters in “Make America Great Again” hats. “It’s going to be the same way for me. We overcame all of them. You can make up whatever you want to make up, but the allegations are the allegations. But the truth is the truth.”
One bipartisan deal is following Cornyn on the campaign trail
When then-President Joe Biden hosted a group of lawmakers at the White House for an event in summer 2022, he thanked them for helping to pass the first nationwide gun-safety bill in decades.
Among them was Cornyn, who pushed hard for the bill in the weeks after the elementary school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. It was one of many bipartisan deals Cornyn has pursued in his four terms while also voting for Republican priorities consistently.
“I hope it doesn’t get you in trouble, mentioning your name,” Biden quipped to Cornyn at the time.
It did. Years later, Cornyn’s support for the Biden-brokered gun compromise remains one of the top issues his opponents hammer.
He was booed at the Texas Republican convention as the deal was being finished and labeled a “RINO” — a Republican in name only — by Trump at the time.
President Joe Biden greets lawmakers including Sen. John Cornyn after delivering remarks at an event to celebrate gun-safety legislation at the White House on July 11, 2022.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“I’ve never been thanked by Joe Biden,” Paxton recently told a group of supporters in Magnolia — a city in one of the most conservative parts of Texas — after accusing Cornyn of facilitating the “most restrictive gun bill in probably decades.”
Hunt, speaking the same week about 200 miles away in Tyler, Texas, accused Cornyn of forgetting “what Texans actually want” after two decades in Washington — because that’s the only reason someone would “pass gun-control legislation in Texas,” to chuckles in the crowd.
Pressed by CNN on whether the gun-safety law is a liability, given that he rarely mentions it on the trail, Cornyn suggested his rivals were being disingenuous and defended his role in passing the legislation.
“No law-abiding gun owner or citizen has been denied access to firearms,” he said. “I think we’ve saved lives.”
He denied that he had any regrets about backing the legislation, which tightened background checks and includes funds for school safety and mental health initiatives, asserting his opponents had misled fellow Republicans about its merits.
“Unfortunately, it’s too easy to tell lies about what we did and what we didn’t do. … There’s a bipartisan consensus, I hope there is, that guns should not be in the hands of people who are mentally ill or who are criminals,” Cornyn said, adding that he’s a gun owner and hunter himself. “I will zealously protect the Second Amendment rights.”
Trump stays out of the race
The battle for the president’s endorsement has been the central feature of the three-man race. But despite months of pleading — and even a trip by Paxton to Scotland for a brief brush with Trump on the golf course — the president has intentionally stayed out, citing his friendship with all three.
From left: Rep. Wesley Hunt, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn. Getty Images Senate GOP candidates in Texas rally with Trump, but leave without an endorsement 3 min read
Cornyn, along with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and his chief deputy, Sen. John Barrasso, have made many appeals to Trump about the potential ramifications of nominating Paxton. They’ve told the president they would have to spend massive amounts of money to help the attorney general against the eventual Democratic nominee, either James Talarico or Jasmine Crockett. Cornyn says Paxton’s candidacy would hurt down-ballot Texas Republicans, effectively making it easier for Democrats to take the House and pursue an impeachment of Trump.
“So I think we’ve made the business case to him,” Cornyn told CNN of Trump. “It’s not based on emotion. It’s not about me, but I think Republicans and the president and his agenda will be much better off if I’m the nominee. If Ken Paxton is the nominee, it will be a disaster.”
As Trump entered the House chamber for his State of the Union speech last week, dozens of Republicans thronged the aisles for a quick embrace or selfie. Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas used his precious seconds with the president for a different reason — to promote Paxton, his longtime friend, one week before the state’s big primary.
“Ken’s here, and he’s going to win,” Nehls told the president, according to a person familiar with the exchange.
Paxton flew to Washington for Trump’s address, in part to help lawmakers get formally acquainted with the man many in the Capitol are trying to defeat. The same week, Paxton used interviews to discuss working with GOP leaders in Washington, a far cry from his constant campaign attacks on the “DC establishment.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton arrives for the State of the Union address at the US Capitol on February 24.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
What happens in a runoff?
Cornyn’s goal: convince GOP voters and donors that backing him in a runoff will spare enormous sums the party would have to put behind Paxton to save the seat and maintain the Senate Republican majority.
Cornyn, who has been married for nearly 50 years, is banking that a potential runoff would turn on character. He plans to go all-in on the highly public breakup of Paxton’s marriage with state Sen. Angela Paxton after she filed for divorce citing “biblical grounds,” accusing him of infidelity. (A court has ruled that future filings in the divorce will be made public, which Cornyn allies have warned will make it fair game for the runoff.)
“If his own family can’t trust him, you can’t trust him either,” Cornyn said in Houston last week. “I can’t trust him.”
Even if the race heads to a runoff, Tuesday’s final tallies will be critical for Cornyn’s future. If he comes in a distant second place, there will be enormous pressure on top Republicans in Washington to consider pulling resources to deploy them to other battleground states.
Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, speaks during a rally in The Woodlands, Texas, on February 28.
Mark Felix/Bloomberg/Getty Images
“Yet to be determined,” Thune told CNN on Thursday when asked how much money national Republicans would spend in a runoff to push Cornyn through. “It’s kind of one of those scenarios we were hoping to avoid.”
Both Hunt and Paxton blame GOP leaders for burning cash to help a struggling incumbent.
In an interview at a campaign stop in East Texas, Hunt said the money spent to boost Cornyn amounts to “insanity.”
“You have literally spent a Powerball ticket on John Cornyn already and you’re going to spend more,” Hunt said of GOP leaders. “You have a 24-year incumbent. It is obvious that the base has left him.”
Hunt added: “If you’re struggling this much to get out of the primary, how are you going to survive a runoff? That’s even further right than the primary.”
CNN’s Casey Riddle contributed to this report.
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