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‘It’s a mess’: With no Trump endorsement in Texas Senate race, Cornyn and Paxton are locked in an expensive brawl

Apr 30, 2026, 5:00 AM ET / CNN

By Patrick Svitek

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, left, and Sen. John Cornyn.

Getty Images

Nearly two months ago, President Donald Trump promised he would make an endorsement “soon” in the Republican primary runoff for US Senate in Texas.

That endorsement still has not arrived — and its absence is keeping the race highly competitive.

Three people involved in the race said they no longer expected Trump to get involved in the battle between Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. However, they cautioned he could change his mind before the May 26 runoff, keeping both sides on edge in the final weeks.

While Democrats haven’t won statewide in Texas since 1994, they have a Senate nominee in state Rep. James Talarico who is energizing liberals ahead of the November midterms and raising massive sums. Republicans long wanted to avoid a damaging runoff that could make things easier for Talarico, in part by having Trump boost one candidate and pressure the other to back down.

Trump was likely to eventually endorse Cornyn after he and Paxton advanced from a March 3 primary, sources told CNN at the time. However, Trump grew frustrated after Republican operatives leaked his expected plans, the sources said. Trump also fielded calls from some of his most ardent supporters, pushing him not to endorse Cornyn and warning it would be a mistake with his “Make America Great Again” base.

Trump met briefly with Paxton after the primary during a gala held at his Mar-a-Lago residence, part of an effort by the state attorney general to head off a Cornyn endorsement. Paxton also publicly offered to consider ending his candidacy if the Senate bypassed the filibuster to pass a Trump-backed overhaul of election requirements, the proposed Save America Act.

Trump has not said much about the race since then, including whether he still plans to pick between Cornyn and Paxton.

The president and some other Republicans have also cooled on Talarico as a formidable Democratic contender amid a deluge of opposition research released after the primary. Trump said in a March 22 post on Truth Social that “any human being running against” Talarico could win.

A poll released Wednesday by the University of Texas suggests Republicans have reason to be concerned about Talarico. He led both Cornyn and Paxton by single digits in hypothetical general-election matchups, though nearly a fifth of voters in each case said they had no opinion yet.

Washington Republicans had long hoped a Trump endorsement of Cornyn would effectively end an intraparty fight and allow the GOP to fully focus on Talarico.

“It’s a mess,” one national Republican strategist said. Speaking on condition of anonymity to assess the race, the strategist blamed a “failure by multiple entities to do their part.”

Some Cornyn supporters have conceded that Trump is unlikely to save the day for the incumbent. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, a former chair of Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, said during a Semafor event in Washington earlier this month that he “would be surprised if the president will weigh in on that race.”

“Staying neutral, frankly, would be a good thing at the moment,” Daines said.

Supporters of each candidate continue making the case for a Trump endorsement.

“The impact of him staying out of the race, I think, has been unfortunate because now we’ve spent tens and tens of millions of dollars in a competitive US Senate seat in Texas that could’ve otherwise be used for competitive House seats … against Democrats in the fall,” said US Rep. Nathaniel Moran of Texas, who endorsed Cornyn after the primary.

“I know, talking to donors across Texas, that they are drained of resources because of this race alone, and as a result, you’re going to see the impact, I think, in the election cycle in November because many of the competitive House seats that needed money coming out of Texas won’t happen,” Moran added.

The fight of Cornyn’s political life

Sen. John Cornyn walks to a vote at the US Capitol on April 20.

Francis Chung/Politico/AP

Cornyn entered the runoff after finishing one point ahead of Paxton in the March 3 primary, beating the expectations of even some Paxton supporters.

Still, Cornyn remains in the dire position of a longtime incumbent fighting for his political life. It took tens of millions of dollars in ad spending for Cornyn to get there, an ominous sign for a politician who has been running in statewide elections dating back to 1990.

There has been little independent polling of the runoff, with most surveys coming from groups aligned with Democratic groups or Republican candidates. But one pro-Cornyn operative, speaking on the condition of anonymity to characterize their view of the runoff, described the race as very close, calling it a “jump ball” or “coin toss.”

That would be much different from the blowout that Paxton predicted in his primary night speech, when he suggested he would romp by double digits like he has done in two previous statewide runoffs.

In his own speech after the primary, Cornyn raised expectations for an all-out offensive against Paxton in the runoff, saying, “Judgment Day is coming.”

Cornyn and his allies have continued to savage Paxton with ads citing the fact his wife, Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce last year and accused him of adultery. Paxton has denied the allegation, and during the primary, he ran ads featuring other members of his family.

But the runoff has been a quieter fight so far. After the primary saw $100 million in ad spending, the runoff tally was just $5.7 million in ad spending as of Wednesday, almost all of it from Cornyn and allied groups, according to AdImpact. The air war is expected to intensify in the coming days.

Paxton has encountered headwinds too

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Texas, on March 27.

Leandro Lozada/AFP/Getty Images

Paxton continues to receive credit, even from some people aligned with Cornyn, for preventing what appeared to be an imminent endorsement of Cornyn after the primary. A day after Trump teased an imminent endorsement – The Atlantic and then Axios reported he was set to back Cornyn – Paxton announced he would consider ending his candidacy if Senate Republicans eliminated the filibuster to pass the Save America Act.

Six days later, Cornyn announced he would support “whatever changes to Senate rules that may prove necessary” to pass the legislation.

The deadline for candidates to formally drop out of the runoff came and went without Trump making an endorsement. Afterward, Trump said in a Fox News interview that he still wanted to issue an endorsement, “but the main thing I have to do is find out who’s going to get the Save America Act approved.”

Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas said Paxton’s push on the Save America Act was the “catalyst” for Gill dropping his neutrality and backing Paxton following the primary.

“We don’t need a senator representing Texas, of all places, who has to be dragged to the right in the middle of a contested Republican primary to get him to do the right thing,” Gill said.

Paxton’s campaign and super PAC remain significantly underfunded compared with Cornyn’s side. When it appeared Paxton was about to receive major outside support earlier this month – from a super PAC aligned with the cryptocurrency industry – senior GOP officials intervened publicly.

Both Chris LaCivita, a top Trump adviser working for a pro-Cornyn super PAC, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee criticized the initial plans by the Fellowship PAC to spend almost $2 million on pro-Paxton ads. The group has not responded to requests for comment but amended a filing with the Federal Election Commission to scrub the pro-Paxton ad buy.

Paxton also has been angling for an endorsement from Rep. Wesley Hunt, the third-place primary finisher in the March primary with 14 percent of the vote. But Hunt told Fox News on Friday that he had no current plans to get involved, saying he was “following the lead of the president.”

Hunt’s comments frustrated some in Paxton’s world. Hours after the interview aired, a longtime Paxton aide reposted another Paxton supporter who said Hunt “lacks the courage to do what he knows is right.”

Publicly, Paxton has voiced confidence.

“I’m very optimistic. In Texas, runoffs tend to favor the most conservative person,” Paxton said last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference near Dallas, a Trump-friendly gathering that Cornyn skipped.

As for fundraising, Paxton told the crowd of activists: “We’re going to raise more money this time. He’s not going to outspend me 20 to 1.”

Republicans still think they’ll beat Talarico

Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for US Senate, greets supporters at a primary election watch party in Austin, Texas, on March 3.

Eric Gay/AP/File

Both have rolled out new rounds of endorsements as the specter of a Trump endorsement has appeared to fade. Still, the state’s highest-ranking leaders – Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Sen. Ted Cruz – have continued to stay neutral.

Patrick, a close Trump ally who chairs his Presidential Religious Liberty Commission, used a recent speech in Austin to lament the “nasty race” and call on each candidate to endorse the other if they do not win. Both candidates have promised, with little enthusiasm, to support the eventual GOP nominee.

Talarico, meanwhile, has been focused on replenishing his campaign coffers after a competitive primary against Rep. Jasmine Crockett and reaching out to Black voters who supported her. Crockett has not endorsed Talarico so far, while former Rep. Colin Allred – who feuded with Talarico during the primary – has backed him.

Talarico raised a record-breaking $27 million in the first quarter. Talarico’s campaign finance report showed he spent nearly as much over the period, ending March with $9.9 million cash on hand compared with Cornyn’s $8.2 million and Paxton’s $2.6 million.

CNN’s Kristen Holmes and Alayna Treene contributed to this report.