Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is closing the gap between himself and his GOP primary opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Paxton maintained an early lead over the incumbent senator and has launched numerous attacks on him in his bid to replace him in the Senate. However, Cornyn’s campaign appears to be kicking it into high gear.
From The Hill:
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has closed the gap in recent polling as he squares off against Attorney General Ken Paxton in a bitterly fought primary, though observers acknowledge he still faces a tough reelection bid.
A Texas Southern University poll released in August showed Paxton holding a 5-point lead over Cornyn among likely primary voters, down from 9-points in the same poll released in May. Meanwhile, an Emerson College poll also released last month showed Cornyn leading Paxton by one point.
The recent polls signal a tightening race after early surveys found Paxton, a staunch conservative, with double-digit leads in some cases, and point to what is sure to be one of the most fiercely fought primaries next year.
“The combination of Ken Paxton’s summer from hell has coincided with our campaign working hard to educate Texans about Sen. Cornyn’s actual record, and this has produced undeniable and significant polling movement in our direction,” said Matt Mackowiak, the Cornyn campaign’s senior adviser.
An Echelon Insights poll released in August also showed Cornyn down by 5 points. An internal poll released by the Senate Leadership Fund, which is supporting Cornyn, found Cornyn cutting Paxton’s lead in half to eight points.
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Brendan Steinhauser, Cornyn’s former campaign manager, told The Hill that the senator’s campaign was likely waiting to “ramp things up” after the end of summer.
Paxton’s divorce became an issues earlier this year when his wife wrote a post on social media indicating she was divorcing him. She intimated that his extramarital affairs was the motivating factor in her decision.
The attorney general is also facing scrutiny after it was revealed that he allegedly claimed three houses as his primary residence while filling out mortgage documents.
Cornyn’s campaign released a new ad asking Texans to provide anonymous tips related to Paxton’s character. Through a website called “KenStoppers,” Texans can provide negative information about the attorney general.
Mackowiak told the Washington Examiner that the initiative is meant to expose Paxton’s corruption. “Texans don’t like horse thieves, and there is no elected official in Texas history with a broader and deeper record of impropriety than Crooked Ken Paxton, who is comically serving as our state’s chief law enforcement officer after a decade of violating as many laws, rules and regulations as he could,” he said.
Paxton had a healthy lead over his opponent earlier this year. A poll released in May showed Paxton leading Cornyn by 16 points. The attorney general has repeatedly attacked Cornyn for not being loyal enough to President Donald Trump and for supporting gun control.
When John Cornyn visits the Texas GOP, he gets boos.
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) September 4, 2025
When I visit DC for a fundraiser, I get protests.
I'll take my Texas friends over John Cornyn's swamp any day of the week.
They're not stopping us! 👇https://t.co/5vkInKLd0A pic.twitter.com/kuYwKpFYpM
Cornyn was the lead Republican senator to champion the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022, which had been the first federal gun control law that Congress had passsed in decades. While some claimed the law wasn’t as restrictive as others, it did make it easier for the ATF to target people for exercising their Second Amendment rights.
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