Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is gearing up for perhaps the most difficult election battle of his long career, securing an early endorsement from Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Wednesday, his one-time opponent in the fight for the chamber’s top job.
“I’ve been honored to work alongside @JohnCornyn—one of the most effective and respected conservative leaders in the country,” Thune wrote on X hours after Cornyn officially launched his reelection campaign. “He was tireless and instrumental in building our majority. We need to keep him in the Senate & in the fight to deliver on President Trump’s agenda.”
While Thune’s endorsement is widely expected — it would be almost unheard of for a chamber leader to not back one of their members — Cornyn faces what could be a difficult primary challenge, with Texas Attorney General and MAGA firebrand Ken Paxton likely to throw his hat in the ring as the candidate closer to President Donald Trump.
“The people of Texas know John Cornyn,” Paxton told Tucker Carlson in a February interview. “And I don’t think he’ll survive another primary.”
The two have been duking it out for years.
“To me, he’s been in Washington too long,” Paxton told Carlson back in 2023. “He’s been there, what, for 14 years or so? And I can’t think of a single thing he’s accomplished for our state or even for the country.”
This, after Cornyn called Paxton’s legal difficulties an “embarrassment” — the attorney general was impeached by the GOP-controlled Texas House (but acquitted by the state Senate), and has faced criminal investigations for years.
A Paxton run could challenge Cornyn’s grip on the Senate seat he’s held since winning it in 2002, with the state attorney general popular among the party’s MAGA base.
