Soon-to-be former Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has teamed up with former President George W. Bush to raise funds for Republican candidates in Texas.
But they seem to have left out at least one GOP contender: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who defeated Cornyn in the primary election earlier this year.
From the New York Times:
Former President George W. Bush and Senator John Cornyn, two top Texas Republicans, are rallying conservative donors behind the party’s Senate candidates — except for the one running in their own state, Ken Paxton.
Mr. Cornyn is hosting a fund-raiser on Monday evening in Dallas for six Republican nominees in battleground states, according to an invitation to the event that was obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Bush, listed on the invite as a “special guest,” is attending the event, his spokesman confirmed.
The event will benefit Maintain the Majority, a new joint fund-raising committee supporting the Senate candidates, who are defending Republican-held seats in Maine, Ohio, Alaska and Iowa and looking to flip seats in Michigan and New Hampshire.
But Mr. Paxton, the Republican nominee in Texas, who defeated Mr. Cornyn in a costly and bitter primary, was not included. His campaign declined to comment on the fund-raiser.
The fund-raising omission of Mr. Paxton is another escalation in the standoff between old-guard Bush Republicans and the fiery insurgent wing represented by the party’s Senate nominee, Mr. Paxton, President Trump and their allies.
And it comes as the parties battle for cash and advertising time in the Texas Senate race, one of this year’s top contests. Mr. Paxton has badly trailed his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, in campaign fund-raising, but super PACs tied to Mr. Trump and Senate Republicans have come to Mr. Paxton’s aid, reserving more than $80 million in outside advertising in Texas.
Mr. Paxton, the state attorney general, has long been a polarizing figure among Texas Republicans. He was impeached by the Republican-dominated Texas House on corruption charges in 2023, though he was acquitted in the State Senate, and he pushed to oust Republican lawmakers and judges who disagreed with him in his party’s primaries in 2024.
This year, Mr. Cornyn and establishment Republican donors spent more than $130 million on advertising backing the senator and bashing Mr. Paxton in their contentious primary. (Mr. Bush chipped in $5,000 for Mr. Cornyn.) In the months since, Mr. Cornyn has continually criticized Mr. Paxton’s character and campaign.
This comes as no surprise, given that Cornyn has acted like a bratty, spoiled child ever since losing the primary race to Paxton. The lawmaker has been taking shots at Paxton regularly. He has attacked the candidate over his legal record, impeachment, and personal scandals and warned that his candidacy could endanger the GOP’s chances of keeping the seat.
He told The Dallas Morning News, “Character still matters. Ken Paxton's lack of good moral character is very well documented.”
Cornyn later told The Texas Tribune, “Paxton’s a poor campaigner. 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.”
At this point, all that’s left for Cornyn to do is endorse James Talarico. Seems like it’s only a matter of time.