{"id":297394,"date":"2026-05-17T20:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/297394\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T20:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:53:13","slug":"cornyn-targets-north-texas-with-warning-about-paxtons-november-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/297394\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornyn targets North Texas with warning about Paxton\u2019s November risks"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE COLONY \u2014 Sen. John\u00a0Cornyn spent Sunday deep in rival Ken Paxton country, standing before a packed barbecue crowd and delivering a blunt warning to Republicans: Nominate Paxton, and Texas could suddenly have a real Senate problem in November.<\/p>\n

On the eve of early voting in advance of their May 26 runoff,\u00a0Cornyn zeroed in on North Texas, a vote-rich GOP region central to his hopes of surviving the fiercest challenge of his long career and cutting into Paxton\u2019s political base.<\/p>\n

At Hard 8 BBQ in The Colony,\u00a0Cornyn called the runoff bigger than a clash between two Republicans<\/a>. He said the outcome could shape whether the GOP holds the Texas Senate seat comfortably, protects down-ballot Republicans and keeps President Donald Trump\u2019s agenda on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attorney general thinks all the scandals that he\u2019s brought with him over the years are already baked into the cake and people don\u2019t care,\u201d\u00a0Cornyn said. \u201cCharacter is on the ballot … if you care about the future of the Republican Party and the president\u2019s agenda … there\u2019s too much at stake for any of us to stay home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senator has ramped up his\u00a0advertising assault<\/a> on\u00a0Paxton with deeply personal attacks aimed at raising doubts about the attorney general\u2019s character and electability.<\/p>\n

Collin County state Reps. Matt\u00a0Shaheen and Jeff Leach joined Cornyn. He praised then for showing courage in their 2023 House votes to impeach Paxton on misconduct allegations, though the Senate acquitted him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe easiest thing to do would have been to run for the hills and hide from political controversy,\u201d\u00a0Cornyn said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t do that. They stood up for you and our Texas values.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornyn repeatedly has cast Paxton as unfit for office because of past legal entanglements and alleged extramarital affairs. Paxton has used his ads to portray Cornyn as out of step with MAGA conservatives.<\/p>\n

Sunday,\u00a0Cornyn defended his record, saying he\u2019s voted with Trump 99% of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been proud to work with President Trump,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Paxton, a former state legislator from Collin County, is also stepping up a North Texas push <\/a>ahead of the five-day early voting period. Supporters have scheduled a rally with him Monday in Dallas, followed by an event in Allen.<\/p>\n

The Republican nominee will face Democratic state Rep. James\u00a0Talarico in the November general election, a prospect Cornyn allies raised Sunday as they warned Paxton could put the seat at risk.<\/p>\n

Leach described\u00a0Talarico as \u201cthe most liberal, progressive, dangerous Democrat who has ever been in the state of Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t think he\u2019s a threat in November, you\u2019re fooling yourself,\u201d he said.
Shaheen went further, arguing Paxton would lose the general election.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn\u00a0Cornyn is the person who can defeat him,\u201d Shaheen said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE COLONY \u2014 Sen. John\u00a0Cornyn spent Sunday deep in rival Ken Paxton country, standing before a packed barbecue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-297394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297394","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=297394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}