John Cornyn Goes to Bat for GOP Senate Candidates in Other States — But Not ‘Lazy’ Ken Paxton

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is a fundraising juggernaut, but he will not be using any of that monetary firepower to aid Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in the November election — and he’s not holding back on the reason why.

Prior to the 2026 election cycle, rumors were circulating that Cornyn was considering retiring, but he declared he was running for re-election after Paxton threw his hat in the ring. There is no love lost between the two, and their primary battle was notoriously brutal.

Paxton scored President Donald Trump’s endorsement and the win, but it required a runoff, burned through campaign funds, and put a spotlight on the series of scandals, lawsuits, a bitter divorce from his state senator wife, and other controversies that have dogged Paxton for years.

As a result, Paxton is widely viewed as a weaker candidate in the general election due to the seemingly unending parade of messy headlines and the downward drag of Trump and the GOP’s poor polling on key issues like immigration and the economy.

Democrats have not won a major statewide race in Texas since the late 1990s, but several factors have elections prognosticators giving the Democratic nominee, State Rep. James Talarico (D), a solid chance at flipping the seat blue.

Earlier this month, Nate Silver released his updated forecast for the November midterms and rated Texas as “Lean D,” designating it as one of his top picks to flip blue, the Fox News Power Rankings analysis shifted its prediction from Likely R to Toss-Up, and the Cook Political Report also rated the Texas Senate race as a Toss-Up.

Polls have continuously shown Paxton lagging behind Talarico — a mathematical situation that Texas Democrats who ran for statewide elections, like former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX), never achieved — and the Democrat is clobbering Paxton both in fundraising and ad buys.

A new report by Gabby Birenbaum at The Texas Tribune highlights Cornyn’s “considerable fundraising prowess,” which Texas’ senior senator will not be deploying to aid his wannabe successor.

Cornyn has an extensive political network both in Texas and nationally from his decades in the arena, with a résumé that includes serving as a Texas Supreme Court Justice, Texas attorney general, and representing the Lone Star State in the U.S. Senate since 2002.

During his time in the Senate, he served as the Senate GOP Whip, was Vice Chair of the Senate Republican Conference, chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and chaired or had influential roles on multiple Senate committees.

“One of the things [Cornyn] is best known for among his congressional peers,” wrote Birenbaum, “is the hundreds of millions of dollars he’s raised, funneling cash to fellow Senate Republicans from the vast donor network he’s built over decades as a mainstay of the Texas GOP.”

Cornyn will not be using that “considerable fundraising prowess” to help Paxton, Birenbaum continued, and instead will be aiding the re-election campaigns of Republican senators in other states.

“What I’m doing is I’m raising money to help in places like New Hampshire and Michigan and Alaska, and some of these other states where I think we’ve got close races,” Cornyn told the Tribune.

After the primary runoff loss, Cornyn said he would support “the Republican ticket” but has not shied away from criticizing Paxton, Trump’s decision to endorse him, and air other grievances, sometimes indirectly or by implication, and sometimes in a more blunt and direct manner.

Birenbaum seems to have caught Texas’ senior senator in one of those unfiltered moments.

“Paxton’s a poor campaigner,” Cornyn told her. “He’s lazy and doesn’t raise money. And he basically is not offering a very compelling case for his election. He’s making this harder than it needs to be. But so be it — we are where we are.”

Cornyn added that Texas can “black hole when it comes to campaign cash,” and said he views other states as a more efficient use of his money.

“This is unfortunately shaping up to be a close, and I hope not disastrous, election,” said Cornyn. “But it ain’t looking good right now.”

There is a vibe of, “You broke it, you bought it” coming from Cornyn regarding Trump’s endorsement of Paxton. The senator noted the president’s super PAC has over $400 million in its coffers, and could drop some of that in the Texas Senate race.

“He could write a check if he wanted Paxton to be the nominee, with all his wrinkles and warts — then it’s a simple solution to that,” said Cornyn.

According to the Tribune, “thus far Talarico has outspent Paxton in direct advertising dollars by a factor of nearly 200-to-1,” and Paxton still lacks the resources to attempt to narrow that gap, raising only $9 million in the second quarter of 2026 compared to Talarico’s $30 million.

Paxton “has pursued a full court press of Cornyn’s largest donors,” an anonymous source “close to Paxton” told the Tribune, but that does not appear to have yielded much success without Cornyn’s cooperation, and many longterm GOP donors in Texas have kept their checkbooks closed in this race since Paxton won the runoff.

Paxton isn’t totally without resources. The NRSC initially backed Cornyn and has now endorsed Paxton, pledging to support his campaign, a super PAC supporting Paxton just bought its first general election ad buy, and a “handful” of other Republican PACs are making expenditures to boost Paxton, Birenbaum reported.

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