![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/paxton-cornyn.jpg\")
article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
John Cornyn and Ken Paxton (Getty Images) <\/p>\n
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton holds a slight lead over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the upcoming May 26 runoff elections, according to the latest polling from the University of Houston.<\/p>\n
The poll, conducted by the University of Houston’s School of Public Affairs, surveyed 1,300 likely Republican voters from across the state. In the poll, 48% said they would vote for Paxton, while 45% broke for Cornyn.<\/p>\n
Polls between the pair have been close throughout election season. In March, coefficient.org showed Cornyn with a single-point lead over Paxton<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both candidates were found to be trailing hypothetical head-to-heads against Democratic nominee James Talarico<\/a> last month, with Cornyn’s gap slightly smaller than Paxton’s.<\/p>\n The latest polling has voters split on who is the better opponent for Talarico, with 43% of respondents saying Paxton and 43% saying Cornyn, while 14% said neither is a stronger candidate than the other in November.<\/p>\n What matters most to supporters of Paxton and Cornyn <\/p>\n Supporters of the two republicans are split on the issues that matter to them the most.<\/p>\n Paxton voters said immigration and election integrity are the most important issues, while Cornyn supporters cited cost of living and the economy as the most pressing issues.<\/p>\n Those polled were also split by education level in their support, with a majority of voters with a four-year college degree voicing their support for Cornyn, while a majority of those without a four-year college degree supported Paxton.<\/p>\n While both candidates will try to win over those who voted for Rep. Wesley Hunt in March, it’s Paxton who is drawing a majority of those voters in, with 54% saying they’ve moved over to the Paxton camp and 35% moving over to Cornyn.<\/p>\n Other GOP runoff races <\/p>\n The UH poll also looked at two other Republican races that will be decided in runoff elections.<\/p>\n In the race for the Republican nomination in the state attorney general race, state Sen. Mayes Middleton held a nine percentage point lead over U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, 48% to 39%. Thirteen percent of those polled said they were still unsure about the race.<\/p>\n The railroad commissioner race is another Republican race going to a runoff.<\/p>\n Voters remain more undecided in that race, with 35% supporting incumbent Jim Wright and 28% supporting Bo French. The remaining 37% of voters said they were unsure who they would support.<\/p>\n The Source: Information in this article comes from a poll by the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs of 1,200 likely Republican runoff voters conducted between April 28 and May 1 with a margin of error of +\/- 2.83%.<\/p>\n Texas Politics<\/a>Texas<\/a>2026 Elections<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article John Cornyn and Ken Paxton (Getty Images) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton holds a slight lead over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3485,223,287,27,29,28,216,395,393],"class_list":["post-280325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-elections-2026","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tx","tag-tx-politics","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280325","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=280325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}