{"id":223937,"date":"2026-03-28T01:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T01:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/223937\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T01:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T01:10:08","slug":"texas-ag-ken-paxton-receives-heaping-of-hugs-and-handshakes-at-cpac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/223937\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas AG Ken Paxton receives heaping of hugs and handshakes at CPAC"},"content":{"rendered":"

GRAPEVINE \u2014 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton strode through the Conservative Political Action Conference<\/a> like a kid back from college.<\/p>\n

Convention-goers heaped hugs and handshakes on him as he made his way through conservative media row for interviews. He stopped only to devour a few Chick-fil-A nuggets and grab a peppermint candy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are my people,\u201d Paxton told The Dallas Morning News. \u201cI love them. And I need them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Paxton is in a bitter runoff battle<\/a> with incumbent Sen. John Cornyn for the GOP Senate nomination. And in order to win the May 26 contest, he has to compel his loyal following to return to the polls for another round. Cornyn finished narrowly ahead of Paxton in the March 3 primary that also featured U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, who came in a distant third.<\/p>\n

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Voter turnout in runoff elections is typically very low, and the candidate who gets their supporters to the voting booth has the advantage. In Republican primaries, the most conservative activists are the tried-and-true voters which is good news for Paxton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to get my people back out,\u201d Paxton said. \u201cThat\u2019s the key to winning, and I\u2019m confident I can get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

CPAC, which is taking place at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center through Saturday, brings together thousands of grassroots activists<\/a>, Republican lawmakers and conservative influencers.<\/p>\n

Paxton already has CPAC\u2019s endorsement over Cornyn, who\u2019s not attending the convention. Cornyn\u2019s campaign announced that a mobile billboard<\/a> attacking Paxton will circle the convention center.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

Paxton has a full schedule. Along with mingling with convention-goers and dropping in on media row, he\u2019s headlining CPAC\u2019s Ronald Reagan Dinner. On Saturday, Paxton is hosting a breakfast meet-and-greet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest hurdle he faces is mobilizing his people to come out in May,\u201d said University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus. \u201cAt CPAC, he\u2019s preaching to the choir. They\u2019re all sitting attentively in the front row.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"CPAC<\/p>\n

Rottinghaus said Cornyn would have a money advantage over Paxton, and both candidates were waiting to see who would get President Donald Trump\u2019s endorsement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paxton declined to discuss whether he had convinced Trump to endorse him over Cornyn. In the days following the primary, it appeared the president was poised to back Cornyn, but that talk has cooled in the weeks since March 3.<\/p>\n

Paxton said Cornyn has outspent him 20 to 1, and he expected his rival would make good on his promise to unleash a brutal, negative campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all he can do. He had to attack me, Paxton said. \u201cHe has nothing else to run on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Convention attendees were overwhelmingly in favor of Paxton.\t<\/p>\n

Elaine Darby, who lives in Robson Ranch, a luxury senior community in Denton County, said she supports Paxton because he proved he will fight Democrats as Texas attorney general. She said Cornyn is a member of the \u201cRINO establishment,\u201d short for \u201cRepublican in name only.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could not pay me a million dollars to vote for Cornyn,\u201d said Darby, a retired administrative trainer. \u201cI don\u2019t trust him. I think he can be bought.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were nods to the Cornyn-Paxton showdown from the CPAC stage. Former Trump adviser Mercedes Schlapp asked the crowd: \u201cWho likes Paxton?\u201d Big applause. <\/p>\n

Then she asked, \u201cWho likes Cornyn?\u201d A chorus of boos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why he\u2019s not here,\u201d she quipped.<\/p>\n

The convention concludes Saturday, when U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is expected to speak.<\/p>\n

Staff writer Sarah Bahari contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GRAPEVINE \u2014 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton strode through the Conservative Political Action Conference like a kid back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[145,3309,1967,287,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-223937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-donald-trump","tag-john-cornyn","tag-ken-paxton","tag-politics","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223937","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=223937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}