Hours after President Trump suddenly intervened in the bitter fight over the Republican nomination for a Senate seat in Texas, Mark Evans rushed to cast his ballot. He had loosely decided on who to vote for but Trump’s endorsement of Ken Paxton, a scandal-plagued Maga loyalist, cemented his decision.
Rather than tipping the balance in Paxton’s favour, Trump’s endorsement sealed Evans’s vote for his opponent John Cornyn, the softly spoken career politician who has held the seat since George W Bush’s first term.
John Cornyn, left, and Ken Paxton MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Not because he dislikes Paxton, or because he believes Cornyn would do a better job, but because he fears someone else: James Talarico, the 37-year-old Democrat who offers the party’s best hope of turning Texas blue for the first time in more than three decades.
James Talarico, right, campaigning with Barack Obama this month JOEL ANGEL JUAREZ/Getty IMAGES
“Talarico is a very gifted politician, and he’s going to be very formidable. And I think Cornyn is our best chance to beat him,” Evans, a 54-year-old business owner, told The Times after casting his vote in Plano, a Dallas suburb not far from where Paxton lives.
Mark Evans SHELBY TAUBER FOR THE TIMES
He worries that black marks against Paxton’s name — including a historical indictment on fraud charges (which was later dismissed), impeachment over claims of bribery and a divorce filing against him on “biblical grounds” — make him an easy target for his Democratic rivals.
Evans’s concerns echo those of Republican leaders in Washington who worry the allegations against Paxton — which include claims he was unfaithful in his marriage to Angela Paxton, a well-liked member of the state senate — will put off voters in one of the most religious states in the US. They fear that running a “flawed” candidate against Talarico, the smooth-talking, Bible-quoting former teacher, will give the Democrats the upper hand.
US newsletter
A balanced, fair and fact-checked take on global news and culture for our US readers.
Sign up with one click
The Texas Republican primary run-off is being viewed as one of the final battlefields of Trump’s “revenge tour” against party colleagues he deems to have slighted him. The president endorsed Paxton, 63, as he celebrated the ousting from Republican renomination of the Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy, who voted to impeach Trump over the January 6 riot, and the Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, who pushed for the release of the Epstein files.
While Cornyn, 74, pitched himself as the safer candidate, making overtures to Trump that included offering to name a highway after him, he failed a stringent loyalty test. In 2023 he said Trump’s time “has passed him by” and he did not support his 2024 campaign until he had all but sewn up the Republican nomination.
In contrast, Paxton’s support has been unwavering. He has made a name for himself as state attorney-general since 2015 as a partisan attack dog known for suing the Obama and Biden administrations more than 100 times.
“Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week, calling him a “WINNER”. While he called Cornyn a “good man”, he said the senator was “not supportive of me when times were tough”.
Paxton with President Trump in 2019 EVAN VUCCI/AP
Cornyn narrowly beat Paxton in the March primary but failed to secure 50 per cent of the vote, prompting a run-off on Tuesday. It has been the most expensive Senate primary race in US history, costing more than $120 million, the majority of which was spent by Cornyn’s campaign. The race has been as bitter as it has been expensive, including one attack ad from Cornyn’s team that used artificial intelligence to show Paxton driving with several mistresses to the tune of Love Shack by the B-52s.
For many grassroots voters in Texas, who are most likely to be motivated to vote in the run-off, Trump’s efforts to expunge “establishment” Republicans like Cornyn is a welcome shift.
“It was my pleasure, for the first time, to [vote to] actually get rid of John Cornyn,” said Clark Brown, who voted for Paxton within the first few hours of early voting. He added that Cornyn was a “Rino”, or Republican in name only, and he was “going to have a rhinoplasty”.
Brown, who is in his sixties, lives in Plano and describes himself as “super Maga”, likened Republicans willing to look past Paxton’s baggage to Democrats who stayed loyal to Bill Clinton despite his infidelities. “I think Paxton might have his flaws, but a learned man once said, you know who, ‘those who have no sins cast the first stone’.”
Outside a polling station in the neighbouring county of Denton, another Republican stronghold, three women who host a podcast called The Lone Star Ladies waved Paxton flags and urged voters to support him.
Brandie Kennedy, 49, a construction co-ordinator, described Paxton as a “fighter” and did not see why anyone who voted for Trump should have any concerns about him. “Did he not bring the same kind of character into the role of president? Is he not defending our country? Yes, and I think Paxton will do the same thing,” she said.
Brandie Kennedy Shelby Tauber FOR THE TIMES
Sheree Rose, a retired real estate site locator wearing a white Paxton T-shirt and Republican elephant earrings, agreed that voters should look past the allegations against Paxton. “I think you know what people do in their private time is kind of their private time, as long as it’s not murder or something,” she said.
Sheree Rose Shelby Tauber
But for some voters, Paxton’s baggage is not something they they can overlook. In Highland Park, a Dallas suburb where sprawling mansions on quiet tree-lined roads can cost more than $35 million, voters casting early ballots predominantly said they backed Cornyn.
Morris Gottlieb, a surgeon, said that while he was pleased with Paxton as Texas attorney-general, the allegations of infidelity were a red line. “I feel that he’s not a man of good morals. I don’t like the way he treated his wife,” he said. Gottlieb, 54, added: “I think Cornyn is not the greatest conservative Republican … I just would prefer Cornyn over Paxton.”
Morris Gottlieb Shelby Tauber FOR THE TIMES
Keith Kennel, a 75-year-old air force veteran and retired commercial pilot, voted for Cornyn. “I was going to vote for Paxton but my wife said, ‘Don’t you dare,’” he said outside a polling station in Keller, a Dallas suburb that voted for Trump in the 2024 election. He said Paxton’s alleged infidelity was a “determining point” for his wife. “He’s been a heck of an attorney-general for the state of Texas, but I like living with my missus.”
Keith Kennel, right, with his fellow voters Tom Johnson and Nancy Schwartz JohnsonShelby Tauber FOR THE TIMES
While most Republicans said they would hold their nose and vote for either candidate if they won the nomination, Brittany Ludiker, 39, said if Paxton won she would probably stay home and not vote for the first time in her life. Two other female Cornyn voters said they would vote for Talarico if Paxton prevailed.
Brittany Ludiker Shelby Tauber FOR THE TIMES
Polls and experts suggest it will be a tougher win for Republicans should Paxton be in the race. According to Real Clear Polling, which averages polling data, Talarico has a slightly bigger edge over Paxton in a general election than over Cornyn.
The Cook Political Report lists the race as “likely Republican” — but if Paxton wins, that designation would shift to the weaker “lean Republican”.
Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Texas, said that if Paxton won, the race would present a tougher challenge for the Republican Party.
“The Talarico campaign will certainly be pleased if they are facing off against Paxton, because they see him as much more vulnerable, much more attackable, and a much better contrast with the Talarico image they want to project,” he said. “It gives Democrats their best chance in decades to break the Republican winning streak.”
Other experts are confident either Paxton or Cornyn will comfortably win the seat. Brendan Steinhauser, a Texas Republican political consultant and co-founder of Steinhauser Strategies who worked on Cornyn’s 2014 Senate race, thinks the fears that Paxton would fail to beat Talarico are overstated.
For Brown, the “super-Maga” supporter, that was not necessarily the issue. “I felt really good voting for Paxton, like I did something bad,” he said. “Things aren’t going well, and I’m looking for somebody to blame. I’m going to blame the Rinos, fair or unfair.”