Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) refused to commit to supporting Attorney General Ken Paxton in November if the Trump-endorsed challenger wins the upcoming GOP Senate runoff, signaling a deepening rift within the Texas Republican Party.
In an interview Sunday on NewsNation's The Hill Sunday, host Chris Stirewalt pressed Cornyn on past remarks that Paxton is unfit for the Senate. Stirewalt asked how GOP voters should square that with the party's usual call to back the nominee.
“Well, I happen to ask these speculative questions about November, but I expect to be the nominee of the party, so I don’t expect to ever have to deal with that,” Cornyn replied. He framed the primary as a “robust family fight” and stressed the need for unity to defeat Democratic nominee James Talarico.
“But I think people are asking me about something that’s never going to happen, that’s the reason I framed it the way I did,” Cornyn added.
The senator's evasiveness comes after former President Donald Trump endorsed Paxton on Tuesday, praising the attorney general as a “true MAGA Warrior” while calling Cornyn a “good man.” Trump noted that Cornyn was “very late” in backing his 2016 and 2020 campaigns, contrasting Paxton's early loyalty.
Cornyn, who has previously said Trump's time had “passed him by” in 2023, dismissed the endorsement as part of the political process. He noted that unlike Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) or Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who faced Trump-backed primary challengers after criticizing the president, his own race remains competitive.
“So I’ll continue to vote in that same way, but sometimes the president needs a little help when, particularly, we’re dealing with the midterms here,” Cornyn said, adding that the next two years are “critical” for Trump's agenda.
Paxton has questioned Cornyn's loyalty to Trump, pointing to the senator's 2022 vote for a bipartisan gun safety bill after the Uvalde school shooting. The runoff, set for May, will determine who faces Talarico in a safely Republican seat.
The race highlights broader GOP tensions reminiscent of historical primary battles, such as Reagan's 1976 challenge that reshaped the party. Meanwhile, Trump's foreign policy moves, including Netanyahu backing the president on Iran, continue to dominate national headlines.
