Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated four-term Sen. John Cornyn in Tuesday's Republican Senate primary runoff, winning about 64 percent of the vote to Cornyn's 36 percent and ending the career of a former member of Senate GOP leadership. The Associated Press put the margin at roughly 28 percentage points. Cornyn becomes the first Republican senator from Texas to lose a primary while seeking re-election.

The result, previewed in Tuesday morning's edition, settles a contest that had become a test of President Trump's hold on the Republican Party. Trump endorsed Paxton six days before the vote, after months on the sidelines, and the late intervention reshaped a race in which Cornyn had led the March 3 primary. The Senate seat now passes to a nominee with a record of indictment, impeachment and a dismissed 2020 election lawsuit, against state Rep. James Talarico in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988.

How it broke

Cornyn finished first in the three-way March primary but failed to clear 50 percent, forcing the runoff with Paxton. Rep. Wesley Hunt, the third candidate, endorsed Paxton afterward. The Senate GOP campaign arm spent millions to defeat Paxton, viewing Cornyn as the stronger general-election candidate, and the contest became the most expensive primary in U.S. history, according to CBS News.

Trump's May endorsement called Paxton "extremely loyal" and described Cornyn as a "good man" who "was not supportive of me when times were tough." Cornyn had spent months emphasizing his voting record with Trump, backing parts of the administration's immigration agenda and shifting on Senate rules to support voting restrictions the president wanted. It did not move Trump's base.

The victory speeches

At his victory party, Paxton thanked the president and said, "when everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and abandon the people of Texas, he didn't listen." He called Trump's backing "the most powerful force in politics" and warned that "every Republican knows that if we lose this state, if Republicans lose this state, we lose the country."

Cornyn told supporters, "I've said throughout this race that I trust the voters of Texas, and they made their decision, and I must respect it," and pledged to support the Republican ticket in November. Trump posted that Cornyn had run "a strong and powerful race" and "had a truly great career."

What it means for the map

The Paxton win extends a pattern. Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy failed to advance from his primary earlier this month after Trump backed a challenger, and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie lost a primary last week to a Trump-endorsed candidate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, asked last week whether Paxton at the top of the Texas ticket would imperil the majority, said "the majority runs through a lot of different states."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz both issued statements backing Paxton and urging the party to unify behind him. The Cook Political Report, Al Jazeera noted, recently shifted Texas from "likely Republican" to "lean Republican." Talarico, who has campaigned on corruption, public education and the economy, called Paxton "the most corrupt politician in America" on social media and invited Cornyn voters into his coalition: "you have a place in our campaign."

The counterpoint

Reporting available Tuesday night came from outlets that lean left, and Republican voices defending Paxton's general-election strength appeared mostly through indirect attribution rather than fresh on-the-record interviews. Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington, summarized the internal GOP worry that "Paxton is too tainted, too extreme to connect with ordinary Texas voters," citing the 2015 securities fraud indictment dropped in 2024 under a diversion deal, the 2023 Texas House impeachment on a 121-23 vote and his later acquittal by the state Senate. Republicans rallying behind Paxton after the result argue the Trump coalition can absorb those liabilities in a state no Democrat has carried statewide since 1994; that case had not been made in detail by named GOP strategists in Tuesday's body-tier reporting.

The general election begins now. Paxton predicted Talarico will "raise more money than any Democrat in America," and both campaigns face a five-month sprint to November.