{"id":420617,"date":"2026-08-29T23:18:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T23:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/420617\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T23:18:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T23:18:34","slug":"john-cornyn-is-raising-money-for-competitive-senate-races-just-not-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/420617\/","title":{"rendered":"John Cornyn is raising money for competitive Senate races \u2014\u00a0just not in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 One of the things Sen. John Cornyn<\/a>, R-Texas, is best known for among his congressional peers is the hundreds of millions of dollars he\u2019s raised, funneling cash to fellow Senate Republicans from the vast donor network he\u2019s built over decades as a mainstay of the Texas GOP.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t expect him to raise money for Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race. <\/p>\n

Instead, Cornyn said he plans to use his considerable fundraising prowess to help colleagues elsewhere. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m doing is I\u2019m raising money to help in places like New Hampshire and Michigan and Alaska, and some of these other states where I think we\u2019ve got close races,\u201d Cornyn said in an interview with The Texas Tribune last week.<\/p>\n

Texas can be a \u201cblack hole when it comes to campaign cash\u201d, Cornyn said, noting his money will go further in other competitive states. And it\u2019s on Paxton and his allies now, he said, to broaden his coalition, including to donors.<\/p>\n

A person close to Paxton, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the attorney general has pursued a full court press of Cornyn\u2019s largest donors.<\/p>\n

Cornyn said he \u201cremain[s] a good Republican\u201d who wants to see the GOP maintain control of the Senate, and he opposes Democrat James Talarico\u2019s policies. But his assessment of his former opponent \u2014 whom he spent months bashing on the campaign trail during the primary \u2014 has not changed much over the three months since the general election began.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaxton\u2019s a poor campaigner,\u201d Cornyn said. \u201cHe\u2019s lazy and doesn\u2019t raise money. And he basically is not offering a very compelling case for his election. He\u2019s making this harder than it needs to be. But so be it \u2014 we are where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paxton did not respond to a request for comment on Cornyn\u2019s stance.<\/p>\n

Cornyn made the case throughout the primary that he feared Paxton would jeopardize the era of Republican dominance in Texas politics \u2014 a warning which was not heeded by the primary runoff voters, who selected Paxton as their nominee by a wide margin.<\/p>\n

He still sees trouble. And free from the political pressures of running for reelection for the first time in decades, Cornyn\u2019s not been shy about sharing his view.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is unfortunately shaping up to be a close and I hope not disastrous election,\u201d Cornyn said. \u201cBut it ain\u2019t looking good right now.\u201d <\/p>\n

Polling this summer has shown a tight race between Paxton and Talarico, with numerous surveys showing Talarico ahead, though within the margin of error \u2014 nonetheless a striking trend in a state no Democrat has won in over 30 years.<\/p>\n

Paxton won the nomination in March despite being outraised and outspent by Cornyn and his allies. His fundraising gap with Talarico is even starker \u2014 the Democrat raised $30 million in the second quarter of 2026 to Paxton\u2019s $9 million, and has thus far Talarico has outspent Paxton in direct advertising dollars by a factor of nearly 200-to-1.<\/p>\n

Many of Cornyn\u2019s top donors, longtime givers in Texas GOP circles, have thus far sat out the Senate race since the runoff. Cornyn suggested the president, whose main super PAC is sitting on over $400 million, could take financial responsibility for Paxton\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could write a check if he wanted Paxton to be the nominee, with all his wrinkles and warts \u2014 then it\u2019s a simple solution to that,\u201d Cornyn said.<\/p>\n

Trump was in Houston Thursday to fundraise for Paxton as part of a Republican National Committee fundraiser.<\/p>\n

And resources are en route for Paxton. The main super PAC supporting him, Lone Star Liberty PAC, placed its first general election broadcast ad buy this week, and a handful of other GOP groups have already begun spending on his behalf, with more expected come September.<\/p>\n

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which was all in for Cornyn during the primary before backing Paxton after the attorney general won the primary, expressed confidence in its candidate\u2019s fundraising and campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cKen Paxton is raising record-breaking resources, building impressive grassroots support, and working in lockstep with President Trump to execute a winning campaign plan that will keep Texas red and ensure James Talarico doesn\u2019t come anywhere close to the U.S. Senate,\u201d said NRSC Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell. <\/p>\n

The primary between Cornyn and Paxton was as ugly as it was expensive. While Cornyn finished in first place narrowly in the initial March contest, Paxton surged ahead with a smaller electorate in May, winning by 28 percentage points.<\/p>\n

Part of Paxton\u2019s task during the general election campaign is to unite the party after the fractious primary, in which voters saw tens of millions of dollars worth of attacks against him.<\/p>\n

Cornyn still received over 500,000 votes in the runoff, and Paxton took a gracious posture that night, thanking the senator for his service and saying he wanted to earn the support of his voters and unite the party. <\/p>\n

The attorney general told<\/a> Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on his podcast in June that he would love Cornyn\u2019s help and that he would have voted for Cornyn \u201c10 times\u201d before Talarico. <\/p>\n

But Cornyn is worried that there has not been enough outreach toward his supporters to make them feel they are still welcome in the Republican tent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell that any of the supporters of Paxton have done diddly squat to reach out to what I would call mainstream traditional Republicans in Texas,\u201d Cornyn said. <\/p>\n

The person close to Paxton said the attorney general has reached out to Cornyn multiple times, but has been met with silence.<\/p>\n

In elevating Paxton over Cornyn with his endorsement, Trump jettisoned an experienced Senate operator with seven months of his term still ahead of him. Over the first three, the administration has had several occasions to feel the repercussions.<\/p>\n

Cornyn has wielded the power of his vote to compel the administration to commit to funding a global HIV prevention program, move more quickly on border reimbursement and, most notably, get written modifications to a controversial \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund at the Department of Justice before voting to move Attorney General Todd Blanche\u2019s nomination forward.<\/p>\n

The senator also spoke out in August at the arrival of machinery in Big Bend National Park asking the Department of Homeland Security to halt construction until it had met with stakeholders on the ground \u2014 a request it ended up honoring.<\/p>\n

The Senate GOP will return to Washington in September aiming to protect vulnerable incumbents and amidst tensions<\/a> with an administration that Cornyn said \u201ccan be very vindictive\u201d.<\/p>\n

Free from political repercussions, Cornyn said he\u2019ll continue to evaluate topics as they arise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve made very clear to the administration, I don\u2019t intend to just be a thorn in their side for the sake of being a thorn in their side,\u201d Cornyn said. \u201cBut basically, the president has relieved me of any political concerns [and] considerations\u2026so I\u2019m just making these calls on a case-by-case basis where I think these are deserving issues.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 One of the things Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is best known for among his congressional peers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,2671,288,3309,1967,287,293,6748],"class_list":["post-420617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-congress","tag-elections","tag-john-cornyn","tag-ken-paxton","tag-politics","tag-texas-legislature","tag-well-b-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420617","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=420617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}