North Texas became a hot campaign battleground this week for candidates scrambling to be Texas’ next senator.
Three of the Lone Star Five – Republican incumbent John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico – were active at rallies, voter outreach events and a defense tour as the fight for their parties’ nominations intensifies ahead of early voting starting Feb. 17.
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Cornyn joined Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday, visiting Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet plant in Fort Worth.
In a social media post after his visit, Cornyn said he was honored to witness the “vitality of the defense industrial base in Texas” and “peace through strength was on full display.”
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“These service members & their families have given so much to our nation & we all owe them a debt of gratitude,” Cornyn said on X.
Hunt was featured Monday night at a mixer and panel discussion hosted by Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Allen West.
The Houston congressman, making his first bid for statewide office, pitched himself as a new generation conservative warrior who would advance the policies of President Donald Trump.
“We are on the right side of history,” Hunt told the audience. “We care about God. We care about our children. We care about our grandchildren.”
Less than 20 miles away at the Plano Event Center, Talarico urged a partisan crowd to resist the policies of Trump.
“I don’t just fight Republican extremism,” Talarico said. “I beat it.”
Also in the March 3 primary: Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas. It’s one of the most-watched Senate races in the country.
The local visits spotlighted deep divides on immigration enforcement, Venezuela and health care, differences likely to shape the general election fight.
Hunt backed the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in immigration arrests, even as scrutiny has grown after the recent fatal shooting in a confrontation last week with a 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis.
“ICE agents are doing their job that’s been told to them by the federal government,” Hunt told The Dallas Morning News.
“The idea of Democrats telling people to get your body in the way of people inciting violence, that’s not how we’re going to fix this problem, because these brave men and women are simply doing their jobs,” he said.
Texas Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, during the Dallas County Democratic Party’s 2025 Johnson-Jordan Dinner at Gilley’s Dallas in Dallas on Monday, Nov. 10, 2025.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
Talarico called for an investigation of ICE and lamented that “patriotic” undocumented residents were being targeted in raids.
“This is the land of opportunity, that this is where dreams can come true,” Talarico said. “The fact that this government is targeting those undocumented neighbors should be a moral outrage to all of us.”
Hunt said he backed President Trump’s military actions in Venezuela, his desire to acquire Greenland and potential strikes on drug cartels in Mexico.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is seeking reelection to a fifth six-year term. He faces primary challenges from U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
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“The president has the authority to keep our citizens safe,” Hunt said. Hunt didn’t offer a specific plan for affordable health care, but said the Affordable Care Act was inadequate and lawmakers should develop health care policies that “cut fraud, waste and abuse.”
Both Hunt and Talarico expressed optimistic about their chances in the primary. And they see North Texas as an important turf to mine for votes.
Talarico has cast the primary and general election as a rallying call for Texans in all political parties to “fight the system, not your neighbor.”
State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, in this composite of a staff photo and an Associated Press photo.
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He took aim at what he described as the Texas billionaire class’ outsized political influence, saying the real divide is economic rather than policy.
“The fight is not about left versus right,” he said. “It’s top versus bottom.”