WASHINGTON – Texas’ bitter, big-money Senate primary left Republicans fractured Tuesday night in early returns as Democrats fought for an edge, all in a showdown that could help decide control of Congress.
With the GOP vote split among Sen. John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, none had a majority, setting up a May rematch between the top two and weeks of renewed attacks.
On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas and state Rep. James Talarico of Austin were close together after pushing rival strategies for a party shut out statewide for more than three decades.
Already the most expensive Senate primary in U.S. history, it has topped $125 million in ad spending, and the national parties are watching closely for clues about turnout, messaging and momentum ahead of the midterms.
In the three-way GOP brawl, Cornyn stressed experience and electability, Paxton ran on his MAGA loyalties and Hunt cast himself as a younger, conservative alternative.
For the Democrats, Crockett leaned into energy and confrontation, while Talarico preached coalition-building and crossover appeal.
Crockett said Tuesday a GOP-driven change was hurting her in Dallas County, her stronghold, with polling site shifts causing confusion and some voters being turned away.
“It is so sad that the Republicans don’t know how to win fair and square,” she told reporters outside the Oak Lawn Branch public library.
Shortly before polls were set to close in Dallas County, the elections department extended voting by two hours to 9 p.m. for Democratic polling sites after widespread problems.
Talarico also criticized the procedures that required precinct-only voting rather than any countywide site.
With more than half the expected statewide vote counted, Cornyn was narrowly leading Paxton.
Talarico was running ahead of Crockett.
Republicans
Cornyn has been chasing Paxton from the start.
When the attorney general announced his campaign last April, he opened with a significant polling lead, powered by strong appeal among the party’s most conservative voters.
Many view Cornyn as too cozy with Democrats and out of step with President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Backed by deep financial support, Cornyn and his allies spent heavily on ads, highlighting his record of voting with Trump and delivering for Texas.
They also targeted Paxton’s 2023 impeachment by the Texas House on corruption charges, of which he was acquitted, and accusations of marital infidelity by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, who filed for divorce.
In one TV spot, sponsored by Texans for a Conservative Majority, a narrator says at the outset: “Ken Paxton isn’t just corrupt. He’s weird.”
Paxton brushed off the corruption accusations as establishment fear of a conservative outsider. “I’m not their person and I’m never going to be,” he said.
But by Labor Day, Cornyn appeared to have narrowed the gap.
Hunt, a two-term congressman, entered in October, complicating any candidate’s path to the majority needed to avoid a May 26 runoff. He has lagged in fundraising, focusing instead on retail campaigning.
Cornyn’s team, and later Paxton’s supporters, pounded Hunt for skipping votes in Washington and dismissed his chances of winning.
Cornyn has argued Paxton would jeopardize more than just the Senate seat, putting Republicans down the ballot at risk. Paxton countered that Cornyn is the bigger liability.
All three Republicans highlighted their ties to Trump, but he did not make an endorsement.
Democrats
Crockett, who emerged as a combative voice in clashes with Republicans in Washington, jolted the party by giving up her safe House seat after two terms to seek the Senate.
It prompted former Rep. Colin Allred to leave the Senate field and instead seek a Dallas-centered congressional seat against Rep. Julie Johnson of Farmers Branch, who had switched districts after Republicans redrew the boundaries.
Talarico, a former middle school teacher, welcomed Crockett and said he wanted a civil contest but the tone soon hardened.
A social media influencer accused Talarico of referring to Allred as a “mediocre Black man,” prompting Allred to release a fiery video bashing Talarico and backing Crockett.
Talarico said he was referring to Allred’s previous Senate campaign approach, not race.
As the contest intensified, Crockett faced criticism from some Democrats who questioned her electability, including an outside group running ads supporting Talarico. She said that skepticism reflected racial and gender bias.
Talarico supporters rejected that, saying they were concerned only that her confrontational style could turn off crossover voters.
The two were aligned on most issues but offered voters a stark choice in style and strategy.
Talarico denounced “politics as a blood sport” and said voters want “a return to more timeless values of sincerity and honesty and compassion and respect.”
He said Democrats’ best shot at winning statewide hinges on appealing to a broad coalition, including moderates and disaffected Trump voters.
Crockett, a former civil rights attorney, said she wants to confront Trump head-on. One of her ads boasts that she “drives the president crazy.” Another carries the tagline “Crockett fights for us.”
She has maintained that the more effective strategy for winning is to be loud and unapologetic in promoting policies to inspire record turnout among Democrats.
Democrats must net a total of four seats to overtake the GOP’s Senate majority in November, targeting Republican-held seats in Alaska, Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.
— DMN staff writers Lana Ferguson and Milla Surjadi in Dallas contributed to this report.)