WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Voters in the Lone Star State will make their second attempt to nominate a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in a primary runoff election on Tuesday, the electoral version of the Texas two-step.<\/p>\n
Also on the ballot are primary runoffs in more than a dozen congressional districts, plus state contests for lieutenant governor, attorney general and others.<\/p>\n
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn<\/a> was the top vote-getter<\/a> in the March 3 primary, but strong showings by two GOP challengers forced the four-term incumbent to Tuesday\u2019s head-to-head matchup with state Attorney General Ken Paxton, the second-place finisher who received President Donald Trump\u2019s endorsement<\/a> on May 19.<\/p>\n The contest is Trump\u2019s next opportunity to purge the party<\/a> of incumbents he views as insufficiently loyal to him and his agenda. It also sets the stage for a general election where Democrats are increasingly optimistic about their chances to score an upset in the heavily Republican state as they look to retake control of the U.S. Senate. Historically, voters have tended to punish the incumbent president\u2019s party at the ballot box in midterm election years.<\/p>\n The winner will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico<\/a> in the general election.<\/p>\n Trump seemed open to endorsing Cornyn<\/a> following the primary, and he did not excoriate the incumbent in his endorsement of Paxton, as he\u2019s done recently with Republican incumbents in Indiana<\/a>, Louisiana<\/a> and Kentucky<\/a>. But he said Cornyn \u201cwas not supportive of me when times were tough.\u201d<\/p>\n Cornyn was critical of Trump<\/a> ahead of the president\u2019s 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n Since much of the Texas primary campaign has focused on the candidates\u2019 loyalty to Trump, the counties where the president has the most support could play a decisive role. Although many of the counties Trump won in 2024 with 80% or more of the vote are rural and sparsely populated, collectively they made up about a fifth of the GOP primary vote. Paxton beat Cornyn in these counties, 45% to 40%, while Cornyn performed better than Paxton in the rest of the state.<\/p>\n In counties Trump carried with between 50% and 80% of the vote, Cornyn received about 42% of the vote, edging Paxton by a percentage point. Republican primary voters in the 12 counties Democrat Kamala Harris carried in 2024 preferred Cornyn, 44% to 40%. These counties made up 25% of the overall primary vote, larger than the share of Trump\u2019s 80%-plus counties.<\/p>\n Only two incumbent U.S. senators from Texas have lost a primary in the last 100 years.<\/p>\n In 2025, Republicans redrew the state\u2019s congressional districts<\/a> at Trump\u2019s urging<\/a> as part of an effort to maintain control of the U.S. House.<\/p>\n