Paxton win sends message to Thune: It’s Trump’s Senate now

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Tuesday evening triumph against Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in the GOP primary marked the toppling of one of the senior-most members of the Republican conference and seemed to signal that MAGA voters are eager for a change in the workings of the upper chamber.

Paxton triumphed in the runoff on Tuesday evening, earning 62.5% of the vote to Cornyn’s 37.5%, according to the Associated Press. Though Cornyn emerged ahead in the original round of the election, Paxton surged ahead after the elimination of Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, and Trump’s last-minute endorsement catapulted him into a commanding lead.

The successful primary challenge marks one of Trump’s most dramatic efforts to reshape the Senate amid his frustrations with the upper chamber and its inability to advance his legislative priorities. The dramatic result, moreover, seems to signal that Trump’s concerns reflect those of Republican voters and hint at a detached attitude pervading the Senate Republican Conference.

To be sure, Paxton’s winning the Republican nomination doesn’t guarantee his entry into the Senate, as Democratic candidate James Talarico is expected to be a formidable opponent. But Cornyn’s departure from the chamber is now definite.

Cornyn, a long-serving lawmaker widely viewed as a member of the old guard of the GOP, nearly earned the post of Senate Majority Leader against John Thune during the leadership contest to replace Mitch McConnell. Despite facing off with Thune, Cornyn became one of the leader’s top lieutenants.

That association, however, appeared to hinder Cornyn more than help him, given Trump’s vocal frustration with Thune’s leadership and the Senate’s inability to advance marquis legislation or alter its own rules to that end.

While Trump’s own frustrations with Thune reflected on Cornyn through his endorsement of Paxton, the president’s decision outright seemed to be the result of political machinations from Paxton. After the first round, Trump announced he would endorse a candidate in the Texas runoff and ask the non-recipient to drop out of the race.

Political analysts widely interpreted that announcement to signal a Cornyn endorsement, though Paxton upended the situation by offering to drop out if Cornyn could secure passage of the SAVE America Act, a marquis voter ID bill that had languished in the Senate for months.

Trump himself had endorsed the bill and echoed calls for the chamber to reform its filibuster rules to be able to pass the bill without Democratic support. Thune refused and Cornyn was unable to secure passage of the bill, despite claiming to support it. When issuing his endorsement, Trump explicitly cited the Senate’s inability to pass the SAVE America Act in explaining his decision to support Paxton and call for new blood. 

Cornyn’s ouster is a second blow to Thune, who lost one of his other top supporters, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., in an earlier primary. Cassidy placed third against the Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La., and state Treasurer John Fleming, resulting in his elimination from the runoff earlier this month.

Though senior senators have complained of Trump’s interventions, they have been able to do little to push back on the president, except by voting against him in a handful of symbolic tallies. Cassidy, for example, voted with Democrats on a war powers resolution that would have limited Trump’s ability to continue the Iran war. Thune, meanwhile, postponed a vote on a reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement after Cassidy’s defeat.

Such protests, however, are unlikely to dissuade Trump from publicly pressuring the Senate to pass his policies. If anything, Trump’s successes in removing some of Thune’s top allies may encourage him to ramp up the pressure.

Cornyn and Cassidy’s ousters coincide with the planned retirements of Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa; Steve Daines, R-Mont.; Thom Tillis, R-N.C.; and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who collectively include some of the longer-serving and relatively moderate members of the conference.

Cornyn’s ouster will contribute significantly to the transformation of the Senate toward a more Trump-aligned deliberative body — provided the Republicans remain in the majority — come the turnover in January.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent for Just the News. Follow him on X.