Paxton Steps Up Senate Campaign as Texas Primary Race Heats Up

In a packed east Texas bar Monday evening, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made a rare campaign appearance, marking his first rally since announcing his U.S. Senate candidacy nearly a year ago. The event signals an intensified campaign effort as Paxton challenges four-term Republican incumbent John Cornyn in one of this year’s most contentious GOP primaries.

“His money is coming from the D.C. establishment,” Paxton told approximately 100 supporters in Tyler. “That’s how he can afford these commercials and that’s how they always try to convince us from Washington with their money that we should select their person. Well, I’m not their person and I’m never going to be their person.”

Until this week, Paxton had maintained a relatively low-profile campaign, spending modestly while primarily drawing attention through his work as state attorney general pursuing conservative causes. But with early voting beginning Tuesday for the March 5 primary, Paxton is ramping up his efforts with a series of campaign stops across Texas.

Paxton has also begun airing television ads linking himself to former President Donald Trump, positioning himself as a “Make America Great Again” devotee against Cornyn and Rep. Wesley Hunt. Despite facing millions in attack ads from Cornyn and his allies, and opposition from Senate Republican leadership, Paxton enters the primary appearing to be his party’s frontrunner.

Trump, when asked about the race on Monday, remained neutral: “I haven’t made a decision on that race yet. I like all three of them.”

Paxton’s political resilience has defied convention. He survived impeachment on fraud charges in 2023 and continues to face allegations of marital infidelity made by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton. Yet his defiance of his own party’s leadership and aggressive litigation on conservative priorities has helped him overcome these ethical and personal questions.

“They see him as a threat,” said Jennifer Seppi, a 57-year-old homeschool teacher from Tyler who supports Paxton. “He’s definitely a threat to the old-boy system. The impeachment proved that.”

Litigation as Campaign Strategy

Paxton has relied heavily on his position as attorney general to remain visible to conservative voters. Last year, he sued Texas physicians over claims they violated the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. In October, he filed suit against companies behind Tylenol, accusing them of deceptively marketing to pregnant women, aligning with Trump’s public statements questioning the medication’s safety.

Most significantly, Paxton has led numerous legal challenges against Biden administration policies, particularly on immigration and border security. These actions have reinforced his credentials as a conservative crusader, building on his record of regularly suing the Obama administration during his final years in office.

“He’s just a strong advocate for our values,” said Perry Seppi, a 60-year-old Paxton supporter. “It seems he works pretty hard to keep Texas on the straight path.”

Massive Spending Against Paxton

Cornyn and his allies have invested heavily in efforts to damage Paxton’s reputation among Republican voters. As of Friday, Cornyn’s campaign and allied super PACs had spent more than $54 million on television advertising, with additional millions on digital ads, text messaging, and direct mail attacks.

One ad, sponsored by Texans for a Conservative Majority, begins bluntly: “Ken Paxton isn’t just corrupt. He’s weird.”

Despite the onslaught, Republican strategists unaffiliated with any campaign say the spending hasn’t significantly hurt Paxton, who projects confidence. He believes he is better known than almost any statewide elected Republican in Texas, including Cornyn.

GOP Leadership Concerns

Republican Senate leaders in Washington warn that Paxton as the GOP nominee would require hundreds of millions of dollars more to defend in a general election than Cornyn would. They argue this is money the party shouldn’t have to spend in Texas, which Trump carried by over 13 percentage points in 2020.

With Democrats needing to net four seats to overtake Republicans’ Senate majority in November, the stakes are high. Democrats are expressing renewed confidence in Alaska, Maine, North Carolina, and Ohio races.

In Texas, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico are seeking the Democratic nomination. According to a memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee obtained by The Associated Press, Paxton would perform worse than Cornyn in the November election against either Democrat.

“Cornyn wins the general election,” the memo states. “Paxton puts the seat at risk.”

As the March 5 primary approaches, the race highlights the ongoing tension within the Republican Party between establishment figures and Trump-aligned insurgents. If no candidate receives 50% of the primary vote, the top two finishers would advance to a May 26 runoff.