{"id":169178,"date":"2026-02-18T04:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T04:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/169178\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T04:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T04:10:09","slug":"trump-declines-endorsement-in-heated-texas-senate-primary-between-paxton-cornyn-and-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/169178\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump declines endorsement in heated Texas Senate Primary between Paxton, Cornyn, and Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Trump Trump declines to endorse in Texas Senate Primary<\/a> <\/p>\n

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton leads incumbent John Cornyn as early voting begins in a high-stakes Republican primary for U.S. Senate, marked by a lack of a presidential endorsement and escalating legal tensions.<\/p>\n

ALLEN, Texas – Early voting began today for the March primary and runs through Feb. 27, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before the March 3 election, some candidates were out and about today, voting early and making their last-minute pitches to voters.<\/p>\n

That includes Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate against incumbent John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" Texas GOP Senate Primary <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

Attorney General Ken Paxton does not talk to the media often, but he did today and had a lot of criticism of Senator John Cornyn.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

On the first day of early voting, Paxton held a campaign event in his home county.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m not surprised that John Cornyn is focused on personal things as opposed to what he has accomplished. Because you know what, he hasn\u2019t accomplished anything,” said Paxton.<\/p>\n

Trump withholds endorsement <\/p>\n

The latest University of Houston Hobby Poll shows he is the front-runner in a race that includes the incumbent, John Cornyn and Rep. Wesley Hunt. As recently as Monday night, President Trump declined to make an endorsement.<\/p>\n

“They\u2019ve all supported me, they\u2019re all good, and you\u2019re supposed to pick one, but we\u2019ll see what happens, but I support all three,” said President Trump.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

When Ken Paxton was asked if he was surprised at President Trump’s lack of endorsement for a specific candidate, he continued to praise the President.<\/p>\n

“No, I respect the president. I love Donald Trump. Donald Trump will do what is best for the country. If he feels it\u2019s time to come to the race, he will come to the race that is up to him,” he said.<\/p>\n

Cornyn warns of \u2018Election Day massacre\u2019 \"\" <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Some republican leaders fear Paxton is more vulnerable in a general election in the wake of his 2023 impeachment and other scandals.<\/p>\n

While in Austin on Tuesday, Cornyn did not mince words.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“If the Attorney General is at the top of the ballot, which is where the Senate race will be, we will have an election day massacre. Republicans. Up and down the ticket will pay the price of having an albatross, like our corrupt Attorney General hung around their neck,” said Cornyn.<\/p>\n

“First of all, he said the same thing about Donald Trump, and he said he couldn\u2019t win, and his day had passed. He has nothing to run on, and I am very proud of my record,” said Paxton.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Big picture view:<\/p>\n

The Republican primary is expected to go to a runoff. Democrats see a Paxton nomination as a better chance for them to win statewide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Legitimate polling I\u2019ve done as well as or better than [Cornyn]. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s a huge difference, but the polling I\u2019ve seen I have done a point better. Two points better. I\u2019m not worried about that. They can say what they want. Prove it.” said Paxton.<\/p>\n

Wesley Hunt takes legal action amid \u2018doxxing\u2019 allegations <\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

Theres two weeks of early voting. Ending on Feb. 27 as primary election day is March 3rd.<\/p>\n

Today the third candidate, Wesley Hunt took legal against the Cornyn campaign.<\/p>\n

The Source: INformation in this article was provided by FOX 4’s Steven Dial.<\/p>\n

Election<\/a>Ken Paxton<\/a>Texas<\/a>Texas Politics<\/a>Politics<\/a>Donald J. Trump<\/a>Allen<\/a>Collin County<\/a>U.S. Senate<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trump declines to endorse in Texas Senate Primary Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton leads incumbent John Cornyn as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36684,1242,960,7810,409,1967,391,287,27,29,28,216,395,393,44606],"class_list":{"0":"post-169178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-2020-election","9":"tag-allen","10":"tag-collin-county","11":"tag-donald-j-trump","12":"tag-election","13":"tag-ken-paxton","14":"tag-people","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-texas-headlines","18":"tag-texas-news","19":"tag-tx","20":"tag-tx-politics","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-us-senate"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}