President Donald Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for Texas’ Senate GOP race in an eleventh-hour decision, siding with a longtime MAGA ally — and potentially imperiling GOP control of the seat.
Trump’s endorsement Tuesday gives Paxton a late boost over establishment Republicans’ preferred candidate, Sen. John Cornyn, ahead of next week’s May primary runoff, where polls show a razor-thin race. And it comes after the president refused for months to take sides, in spite of heavy lobbying from both Cornyn’s and Paxton’s allies.
The timing of the last-minute endorsement comes as a surprise, months after he was initially expected to jump in: Just on Monday, Cornyn said “the ship has finally sailed” regarding Trump’s stamp of approval.
“Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “John Cornyn is a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough.”
