{"id":183623,"date":"2026-02-27T22:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/183623\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T22:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:35:17","slug":"trump-arrives-in-texas-home-to-a-very-hot-senate-primary-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/183623\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump arrives in Texas, home to a very hot Senate primary race"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> just can\u2019t seem to choose among friends<\/a> in the Texas Senate Republican primary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So when he travels to the state on Friday for his first post- State of the Union<\/a> trip, where he plans to promote his energy and economic policies, Trump will have all three candidates in the competitive race join him \u2014 just days before his party casts ballots in the primary race.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Cornyn<\/a> is battling for his fifth term and is being challenged by state Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a> and Rep. Wesley Hunt<\/a> in a primary fight that has become viciously personal<\/a>. And all three men, missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, have been trying to highlight their ties to him as they ramp up their campaigning ahead of Tuesday\u2019s vote. Cornyn got a head start on Friday, when he flew on Air Force One for the Texas trip and posted multiple photos of his ride on social media. <\/p>\n

During a brief exchange with reporters in Texas, Trump said he\u2019s \u201cpretty much\u201d decided who to endorse in the primary, but that \u201cno,\u201d he would not disclose his pick just yet. <\/p>\n

Trump landed in Corpus Christi shortly before 3 p.m. local time and was greeted by Gov. Greg Abbott, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and officials at the nearby Port of Corpus Christi. Ahead of Trump\u2019s visit, Energy Secretary Chris Wright authorized a\u202f12% expansion\u202fin liquefied natural gas exports at Cheniere Energy\u2019s Corpus Christi terminal \u2014 making it the second largest LNG export project in the U.S.<\/p>\n

For his part, Trump will be seeking to ride the message of his State of the Union address<\/a> from Tuesday, where he declared a return to economic prosperity<\/a> and a more secure America \u2014 two centerpiece arguments for Republicans as they campaign to keep their congressional majorities this fall.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s hesitation to endorse in the Texas Senate primary speaks to the tricky dynamics of the race.<\/p>\n

Cornyn is unpopular with a segment of Texas\u2019 GOP base, in part for his early dismissiveness of Trump\u2019s 2024 comeback campaign and for his role in authoring tougher restrictions on guns<\/a> after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. But Senate GOP leadership and allied groups see Cornyn as the stronger general election candidate, in light of a series of troubles that have shadowed Paxton.<\/p>\n

Paxton<\/a>beat impeachment on fraud charges<\/a> in 2023, and has faced allegations of marital infidelity<\/a> by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have urged Trump to endorse Cornyn<\/a>. They and allied campaign groups argue that the seat would cost the party hundreds of millions more to defend with Paxton as the candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a strong possibility we cannot hold Texas if John Cornyn is not our nominee,\u201d Scott told Fox News on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Hunt, a second-term Houston-area representative<\/a>, was a late entry to the race, but claims a kinship with Trump, having endorsed him early in the 2024 race. Hunt campaigned regularly for Trump and earned a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

If no candidate reaches 50% in Tuesday\u2019s primary, the top two finishers will advance to a May 26 runoff.<\/p>\n

Cornyn\u2019s campaign and a half-dozen allied groups have poured more than $63 million<\/a> into the race since last fall, chiefly trying to slow Paxton but recently attacking Hunt in an effort to keep him from making it to the runoff.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Trump feinted toward weighing in on the race when he said he was taking \u201ca serious look\u201d at endorsing in the Texas primary. He has since reaffirmed his neutrality.<\/p>\n

Still, you wouldn\u2019t know it from watching TV in Texas. Cornyn has been airing ads since last year touting his support for Trump\u2019s agenda, even though his relationship with the president has been cool at times. Paxton and Hunt both have ads airing now featuring them standing with Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like all three of them, actually. Those are the toughest races. They\u2019ve all supported me. They\u2019re all good. You\u2019re supposed to pick one, so we\u2019ll see what happens. But I support all three,\u201d Trump said earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The GOP battle comes as Democrats have a contested primary of their own<\/a> in Texas between state Rep. James Talarico<\/a>, a self-described policy wonk who regularly quotes the Bible, and progressive favorite U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump hasn\u2019t been shy about wading into other contested Republican primaries in the state. Parts of Corpus Christi fall within Texas\u2019 34th congressional district, where former Rep. Mayra Flores is fighting to reclaim her seat<\/a> against the Trump-endorsed Eric Flores. (The two are not related.) The winner of the primary will face off against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, long a target of the GOP, whose district was redrawn to make it easier for a Republican to win.<\/p>\n

Eric Flores will be at the Trump event at the Port of Corpus Christi, which technically is located in a neighboring district.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the state, the president has also endorsed Rep. Tony Gonzales, who is fighting calls from his own<\/a> party to resign from Congress after reports of an alleged affair with a former staffer who later died after she set herself on fire. Gonzales is refusing to step down and has said that there will be \u201copportunities for all of the details and facts to come out\u201d and that the stories about the situation do not represent \u201call the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzales is facing a primary challenge from Brandon Herrera, a gun manufacturer and gun rights influencer, whom Gonzales defeated by fewer than 400 votes in their 2024 runoff. The White House did not return a request for comment on Thursday on whether Trump stands by his endorsement of Gonzales.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump just can\u2019t seem to choose among friends in the Texas Senate Republican…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2137,2498,17101,19864,73126,155,157,156,145,73518,288,71971,490,31820,392,3006,2135,3481,3309,25785,1967,19617,287,27,73517,2566,1760,9931,7533,6474],"class_list":{"0":"post-183623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-2026-elections","9":"tag-angela-paxton","10":"tag-ap-top-news","11":"tag-cheniere-energy","12":"tag-chris-wright","13":"tag-corpus-christi","14":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","15":"tag-corpus-christi-news","16":"tag-donald-trump","17":"tag-economic-policy","18":"tag-elections","19":"tag-eric-flores","20":"tag-general-news","21":"tag-government-policy","22":"tag-greg-abbott","23":"tag-inc","24":"tag-james-talarico","25":"tag-jasmine-crockett","26":"tag-john-cornyn","27":"tag-john-thune","28":"tag-ken-paxton","29":"tag-mayra-flores","30":"tag-politics","31":"tag-texas","32":"tag-tim-scott","33":"tag-tony-gonzales","34":"tag-tx-state-wire","35":"tag-u-s-republican-party","36":"tag-washington-news","37":"tag-wesley-hunt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183623","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=183623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}