{"id":300228,"date":"2026-05-19T20:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/300228\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T20:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:39:09","slug":"election-live-updates-trump-backs-ken-paxton-in-texas-senate-race-kentucky-georgia-and-4-other-states-hold-primaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/300228\/","title":{"rendered":"Election live updates: Trump backs Ken Paxton in Texas Senate race; Kentucky, Georgia and 4 other states hold primaries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"feedBody\" q:key=\"Il_0\" q:id=\"x\">A slew of Republican senators expressed disappointment about Trump\u2019s endorsement of Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas Senate runoff to NBC News this afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"feedBody\" q:key=\"Il_0\" q:id=\"10\">Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told reporters as she entered the Senate GOP closed-door lunch that she was \u201csupremely disappointed&#8221; and that Trump&#8217;s decision &#8220;puts that seat in jeopardy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/250712-Paxton-Cornyn-aa-103-a10d65.jpg\" width=\"780\" height=\"521\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" alt=\"Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and  Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General\" class=\"block\" q:id=\"14\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption mb-0 _caption_1r9t6_8\" q:key=\"Gg_6\">Sen. John Cornyn; Ken Paxton.\u00a0  Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"feedBody\" q:key=\"Il_0\" q:id=\"1a\">\u201cHe is an ethically challenged individual,\u201d Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said of Paxton. \u201cJohn Cornyn is an outstanding senator and deserved, in my judgment, the president\u2019s support.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"feedBody\" q:key=\"Il_0\" q:id=\"1d\">\u201cI\u2019m speechless,\u201d Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told NBC News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"feedBody\" q:key=\"Il_0\" q:id=\"1i\">Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said it will be \u201cthree times more expensive\u201d for Republicans if Paxton is the nominee. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the pathway for Paxton is there, but it\u2019s more uphill,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"feedBody\" q:key=\"Il_0\" q:id=\"1l\">\u201cHe\u2019s looking backward now, and he\u2019s looking at people that were not there when he needed them the most. He has a right to do that. And I like Senator Cornyn. I think he\u2019s been a great senator,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"feedBody\" q:key=\"Il_0\" q:id=\"1o\">\u201cI\u2019m sad. I\u2019m actually sad,\u201d Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said. \u201cIf Paxton wins the primary, I mean, early polling indicated that it could be a problem. Now it\u2019ll just cost us a fortune.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"feedBody\" q:key=\"Il_0\" q:id=\"1r\">Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who suffered his own defeat Saturday after Trump endorsed his primary opponent, simply told NBC News, \u201cI thought Paxton was a felon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A slew of Republican senators expressed disappointment about Trump\u2019s endorsement of Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-300228","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\/300228","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=300228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}