00:00Trump-backed Ken Paxton oust John Cornyn in heated Texas primary after scandal-plagued
00:06campaign. Race had wide implications for Trump's strength heading into midterms,
00:11where Paxton will face Democratic candidate James Tolerico.
00:15Dear viewers, please like this news, share your comments, and don't forget to subscribe
00:20to MHM News for daily global updates. Ken Paxton, the Donald Trump-backed Texas
00:25Attorney General, triumphed over incumbent John Cornyn in the Republican primary runoff for
00:31senator. His victory signals that even a scandal-plagued candidate can win over the deep
00:36red state with the support of the president. After a public service career lasting more than
00:41four decades and 18 consecutive campaign wins, tonight we've come up short in this primary
00:47runoff, Cornyn said shortly after the race was called. I've always supported the GOP ticket.
00:52I intend to do so again this general election. The race had wide implications for Trump's
00:58strength heading into November's midterm elections, where Paxton will now face James Tolerico,
01:03a Democratic pastor and state legislator whose message of peace and populism has attracted much
01:09attention. If he wins, Tolerico would become the first Democrat in more than 30 years to win
01:15statewide office in Texas. Midterm elections often serve as a referendum on the sitting president
01:21and tend to help the opposing party. This year Democrats are favored to win the House of
01:26Representatives, though a Supreme Court decision that decimated the Voting Rights Act could allow
01:31for more Republican-leaning districts and complicate the picture. The race for Senate remains in flux,
01:37though candidates such as Tolerico, Graham Plattner in Maine, as well as purple states such as Ohio and
01:43Michigan, could upset the Republican lead. Texas, which Trump won in 2024 by a gaping 14 percentage
01:50points in 2024, remains a conservative state, and the Republican primary was a testament to hot-button
01:57issues, from religion to economy, that animate the base. First elected state attorney general in 2014,
02:04Paxton sought to position himself as a national leader on the far right, launching some of the
02:10first criminal investigations in the U.S. over abortion bans and gender-affirming care for
02:15transgender youth. He also led a lawsuit attempting to overturn Trump's loss to Joe Biden in 2020,
02:22an effort the U.S. Supreme Court rejected. Brandon Rottinghouse, a political science professor at the
02:27University of Houston, said,
02:29Paxton was Donald Trump before Donald Trump was. He was in the vanguard of the Tea Party movement,
02:35which was a major spur for the mega-movement nationally. But Paxton comes with significant
02:40political baggage, and national Republicans worry they will have to spend significantly more with
02:46him as the nominee. Paxton was impeached in 2023 after being accused of corruption and reported to
02:52the FBI. He was later acquitted in a trial in the Texas Senate, where his wife was a state senator
02:58but
02:58not allowed to cast a vote. Paxton was also indicted on charges of felony securities fraud that could have
03:04led to a prison sentence. But the case was dismissed after a 2024 pre-trial diversion agreement. And last
03:11year his wife of 38 years, Angela Paxton, filed for divorce on biblical grounds, citing adultery.
03:19Cornyn, meanwhile, has had a less incendiary tenure, but sought to win over Trump diehards with his own
03:25conservative bona fides, and even introducing a bill to name a future highway after Trump.
03:30But Cornyn, a prominent figure in Republican politics who was nearly chosen to be the Senate
03:36majority leader, became the latest target of Trump's retribution campaign. In a Sunday social
03:42media post, Trump said Cornyn had been very disloyal to me and implored voters in Texas to remember.
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