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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is talking like he wants to take on U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in a GOP primary next year, but he's still not ready to pull the trigger.
The Collin County Republican told a D.C. news outlet on Monday that he could decide in "the next couple of months." They reported that Paxton is trying to line up fundraising commitments as he tries to decide.
Paxton said he would need to raise more money than he's ever raised before in his career if he's going to defeat a sitting U.S. senator in a primary.
"I think I can win if I have $20 million," Paxton, 62, told Punchbowl News.
That's a huge number given that Paxton raised just under $8 million in 2022 when he was challenged for re-election by former Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, U.S. Rep. Louis Gohmert and Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman. Currently he has about $2.8 million in his reelection account for Texas attorney general.
Cornyn, 73, spent more than $36 million on his 2020 reelection and already had $4 million in his main campaign account at the start of 2025. The fourth-term senator just had a campaign fundraiser in Washington, D.C. last month and another big one in Houston on Monday. Totals from those events will be reported in campaign finance reports next month.
Even though Cornyn has never won less than 75 percent of the vote in his past Senate primaries, Paxton says he's vulnerable.
"I think it's just time," Paxton said. "He's had his chance. He hasn't performed well and the voters know it. You can go a long time without people paying attention, and they're paying attention now."
The last time Texas had a truly competitive GOP primary for the U.S. Senate was in 2012. Ted Cruz spent about $15 million to win that race over then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who spent more than $34 million.
But there was no incumbent in that race. No incumbent U.S. senator has lost a primary in Texas since 1970.
Paxton isn't the only Republican kicking the tires on challenging Cornyn for reelection. Last week I told you how U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, has been running statewide ads during conservative radio talk shows to build up his name identification for a possible challenge.
If all three get in the race, be prepared to hear a lot about who is most supportive of President Donald Trump.
"I look forward to again working hand in glove with President Trump to implement his agenda," Cornyn said after his D.C. fundraiser.
In Hunt's ad, the 43-year-old Army veteran focuses almost entirely on how much he's supported Trump over the years. Hunt campaigned in Texas and other states in support of Trump in 2024 and was a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention.
Paxton has also been a major ally of Trump. In 2020, he tried to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn President Joe Biden's victory and later spoke at the rally in D.C. before some Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
 | Jeremy Wallace, Texas politics reporter |
Who's Up, Who's Down
A daily stock market style report on key players in Texas politics.
Up: Caroline Fairly.
The Republican State Representative from Amarillo has picked up bipartisan support for a bill that would ban the use of cell phones in classrooms in all public schools. Fairly had her first big hearing on the bill on Tuesday and already has 76 co-sponsors, giving her enough votes to pass the bill if it gets to the full House for a vote. Some schools already ban cell phones in class, but Fairly's bill would make it statewide like is the case in Louisiana and Arkansas.
Down: Detroit.
U.S. automakers are continuing to push President Donald Trump to back down from imposing 25% tariffs on vehicles and parts from Canada and Mexico. With the tariffs two weeks away from going into effect, leaders at Ford have warned it could "blow a hole" in the U.S. auto industry. But Trump doesn't sound like he's going to relent. On Sunday he was on a podcast where he offered stern advice to U.S. automakers. "But if they build the car in the United States, there is no tariff. There is zero tariff."
What do you think? Hit reply and let me know.
What else is going on in Texas
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Pick of the day
Photo by: Photo illustration by Susan Barber
How bogged down are Harris County courts? A Houston man was jailed for 18 years without a trial. Reporter Neena Satija writes that in 2024, Harris County prosecutors dismissed the murder charge against him after concluding that the key piece of evidence linking him to a woman's death, a DNA test result, was far weaker than they'd originally believed.
What else I'm reading
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz brought Tesla CEO Elon Musk onto his podcast, the Verdict, to talk about examples of government waste Musk says he has found as a member of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency. At one point Cruz asked Musk what it was like to have gone from attending the Academy Awards ceremony "and being Mr. Cool and now you've got death threats every day?" Musk replied: "Well these days the Oscars are boring. I wouldn't want to go."
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