Democrat James Talarico names scandal-plagued Republican candidate ‘most corrupt politician in America’ in fall campaign that will shake up 2026 Senate map
In a blow to President Trump, Senate moves forward with measures to end Iran war
In a blow to President Trump, the Senate moved forward for the first time on a measure to end the Iran war.
- Donald Trump-backed Ken Paxton defeated incumbent John Cornyn in the Texas Republican Senate primary runoff.
- Paxton will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in the general election, which some political observers believe could be a rivalry.
- In the Houston-area congressional race, freshman Rep. Christian Menefee defeated longtime Democratic Rep. Al Green.
President Donald Trump’s purge of Republicans who oppose him reached new heights on May 26 with the ouster of Texas Sen. John Cornyn.
Cornyn is a four-term pillar of the Republican establishment and once rose to the post of the party’s second-ranking leader in the Senate.
But despite the support of Senate leadership and a fundraising advantage, the 74-year-old lawmaker lost a tight runoff to state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a scandal-plagued MAGA-coded conservative who also had the support of the president.
The Associated Press, Fox News and others called for Paxton’s candidacy about an hour after voting ended.
Trump’s endorsement was announced a week before the election after nearly two months of fruitless lobbying by Cornyn’s allies. This created a rift between Republicans in the Lone Star State and Washington, pitting Mr. Cornyn’s perceived electability against Mr. Paxton’s unflinching loyalty to Trump.
While Cornyn is a reliable conservative vote in Congress, he had expressed concerns about Trump’s 2024 presidential bid.
Paxton is now heading into a fall campaign against state Rep. James Talarico, 37, a Democratic candidate and a Presbyterian seminarian, but some in his party believe he can win the first Texas Senate race since 1988.
“Right now, we need to come together to defeat the most well-funded radical Democratic Party in America,” Paxton said in a May 26 post on the X show.
Further down the line, voters had to contend with the Texas Legislature reshaping the state’s congressional maps to give Republicans more representation, forcing them to face Democratic incumbents in primaries.
Here are the key takeaways from the May 26 results:
Paxton upends Texas politics, praises Trump’s victory
Mr. Paxton defeated Mr. Cornyn in most of the state, performing much better than in the March 3 primary.
Mr. Cornyn lost by 26 points with about 70% of the vote counted, according to preliminary results, a stunning setback for a powerhouse in Texas politics once tied to the George W. Bush administration.
Mr. Paxton’s victory also highlights that loyalty to the president remains the most powerful issue within Republican politics, even as Mr. Trump’s approval ratings slump outside the Republican base.
The president supported Paxton despite concerns from Senate Republicans that a scandal-plagued attorney general would be less electable than Cornyn.
“Everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and abandon the people of Texas, but he didn’t listen,” Paxton said in his victory speech.
Can Democrats make Texas competitive again?
Mr. Talarico argued that it doesn’t matter who wins the Republican primary, but observers speculate that Mr. Paxton is more vulnerable to Democratic disruption in heavily Republican states.
Mr. Trump easily won Texas by 14 percentage points in 2024, but Mr. Paxton was impeached on bribery charges by the Republican-led Texas House in 2023 (he was acquitted by the Republican-led state Senate).
The 63-year-old attorney general made headlines again when his wife, state representative Angela Paxton, announced in 2025 that the two would be divorcing. After nearly 40 years of marriage, she said the breakup was based on “biblical grounds.”
“Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in America,” Talarico, who has made his Christian faith and values central to his political identity, said in a May 26 video released shortly after the results were announced. “He embodies the broken system we face. It’s time to come together. The People vs. Ken Paxton.”
Talarico also thanked Cornyn for “representing our state for many years,” adding that while the two sides don’t see much of an agreement, Cornyn’s supporters “have a place in our campaign.”
President Trump, Republicans ready to launch Talarico attack
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report changed its rating of Texas from a “Republican-leaning” state to a “Republican-leaning” state shortly after Paxton’s victory.
A poll released earlier this month by Texas Southern University’s Barbara Jordan Center for Public Policy Research found Paxton and Talarico tied at 45 percent.
But before Democrats gloat that Texas is in their hands, conservative activists have a warning of their own.
“When you start looking at candidates like James Talarico, we truly believe there are multiple weaknesses, and we intend to prosecute those,” Greg Keller, a spokesperson for the pro-Paxton Lone Star Liberty PAC, told USA TODAY.
“This guy has a history of showing himself to be completely out of sync with mainstream Texans and, frankly, with mainstream Americans in general.”
Trump had already begun mocking the Democratic nominee on a variety of fronts, primarily culture war issues, calling Talarico a “weird candidate.”
For example, the president said Talarico believes there are “six genders,” an attack that referenced his opposition to an April 2021 Texas bill that would require public school students to play on athletic teams based on the gender they were assigned at birth.
Mr. Paxton appeared to echo some of these narratives when he launched an attack on Mr. Talarico after winning the Republican nomination. He loudly called out his Democratic opponent’s nickname to the crowd, calling him “Low T Talarico.”
Democrats make generational choice in Houston-based district
When the Texas Republican Party drew new congressional maps last year at the behest of President Trump, several members were forced to run against members of their own party.
Among them was a generational Democratic battle between longtime Rep. Al Green, 78, and freshman Rep. Christian Menefee, 38, over a newly created Houston-based district.
In the previous primary held in March, neither candidate passed the required 50% threshold, but the May 26 runoff results showed Menefe won with about 68% of the vote. This makes Greene, who was first elected in 2004, the first Democratic incumbent to be defeated in this year’s primary.
Since the 2024 presidential election, Democrats have debated whether elder statesmen like Greene, who is known for interrupting Trump’s speeches, have been in power too long. Across the country, young progressives have launched primaries against veteran incumbents. Some older incumbents, like 87-year-old Rep. Maxine Waters, are focused on their futures.
During the campaign, Menefe emphasized generational change, but Green faced fierce opposition from the crypto industry and argued that seniority was essential in Congress.
“Mr. Greene represents protest politics and likes to disrupt things and pressure people on the inside to change, whereas Mr. Menafee is an institutional reformer who is working from the inside out to try to make change. This is certainly quite a change,” Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, told USA TODAY.
Former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, a 2024 Democratic Senate candidate, faces a similar battle to survive in a runoff against U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson.
In the key Republican runoff, veteran Carlos Delacruz, backed by President Trump, will face state Rep. John Lujan.
Chip Roy loses primary election for attorney general
The race to replace Mr. Paxton as state attorney general featured a MAGA-on-MAGA runoff between Rep. Chip Roy and state Sen. Mays Middleton, with no formal endorsements from either Mr. Trump or Mr. Paxton.
As a result, state party leaders were divided in a primary race filled with attack ads.
Roy is a hardliner in Congress backed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and has at times clashed with House leadership and the White House. For example, he supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, initially opposing President Trump’s signature “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” but ultimately supporting the bill.
But with the help of big Republican donors and an astonishing $8 million fundraising effort in the final weeks of the contest, he was able to electrify Mr. Middleton, the oil company president who poured $3 million into his campaign.
Trump did not participate in the campaign, but that didn’t stop Middleton from calling herself “MAGA Maze” to curry favor with Trump supporters. It appeared to work well enough to give Middleton an 11-point victory.
Contributor: Terry Collins, Sarah D. Wire
