Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican nomination for the United States Senate on Tuesday, defeating four-term Senator John Cornyn.According to results reported by The Associated Press news agency, Paxton won with about 64 percent of the vote, while Cornyn received about 36 percent, a margin of roughly 28 percentage points.Recommended Stories list of 2 itemsend of listUS President Donald Trump endorsed Paxton last week, calling him a “true MAGA warrior”. The loss makes Cornyn, first elected in 2002, the first-ever Republican senator from Texas to lose his party’s nomination for re-election.Here is what we know:Paxton calls Trump endorsement ‘most powerful force in politics’Paxton’s victory added to a growing list of Trump-backed primary wins before the 2026 midterms.Cornyn, who served in the Senate for more than 20 years and was once part of the Republican leadership in Congress, is widely regarded as a traditional establishment Republican. Despite support from chief donors and senior party figures, he struggled to win over Trump’s supporters.For months, Cornyn tried to show he supported Trump and his agenda. He highlighted his voting record with Trump, backed parts of Trump’s immigration plans and changed his position on some Senate rules to support voting restrictions backed by the president.But Trump continued to criticise Cornyn, accusing him of being “very disloyal” after the senator questioned Trump’s political future in 2023 and waited months before endorsing his 2024 campaign.Trump’s endorsement of Paxton last week changed the race and helped make Cornyn the latest Republican incumbent to lose to a Trump-backed challenger. Advertisement “Tonight, we’ve come up short,” Cornyn told supporters after the race was called, while promising to continue supporting Republican candidates.The defeat makes Cornyn the first Republican senator from Texas to lose a primary while seeking re-election, a result likely to end his Senate career.Paxton celebrated the victory and called Trump’s endorsement “the most powerful force in p …
