Texas redistricting clash becomes another stage in the GOP’s big Senate primary fight
As Texas Republicans battle with state House Democrats, who fled to block the GOP’s ability to pass new congressional maps, there’s an intraparty skirmish proceeding just as fiercely on the sidelines: the state’s contentious Republican Senate primary.
Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is challenging Cornyn in a primary, have spent the last week making appeals to state and federal officials aimed at putting more pressure on the Democrats — and feuding with each other in the process.
The clash between the two Senate rivals is the latest act in a fierce battle, as Paxton runs against the incumbent from his right flank. It shows how the two men are responding to the redistricting standoff, with each trying to frame himself as the toughest fighter and the one most committed to delivering President Donald Trump the five extra Republican congressional seats he has said he is “entitled to.”
As state attorney general, Paxton has a direct role to play in this debate, and he has used the power of his law enforcement office to take aggressive action against state Democratic lawmakers and their allies.
Paxton has petitioned the state Supreme Court to boot state Rep. Gene Wu, the chair of the Democratic caucus in the state House, from office. (Gov. Greg Abbott lodged a similar petition, but Paxton argued that he, not the governor, is the one who has the right to bring such a charge.) Days later, he asked the court to boot 13 more state House Democrats.
He’s launched an investigation into liberal billionaire George Soros and sued former Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke, whom he’s accusing of “bribery” for helping to fundraise for the state Democrats. (On Friday, he won a temporary restraining order blocking O’Rourke and his group from financially supporting the Democrats.)
Paxton has also floated charging the legislators themselves with violating state bribery laws. And he filed a legal petition in Illinois requesting jurisdiction to arrest the Democrats who have fled to the state.
“We are pursuing every legal remedy at our disposal to hold these rogue legislators accountable. Texas deserves representatives who do their jobs instead of running away at the behest of their billionaire handlers. If there’s one thing Texans can’t stand more than losers, it’s cowards,” Paxton said in a statement.
As a senator, Cornyn has no such direct role to play in this political and legal fight. But he has been determined not to be outdone. Cornyn has pushed the FBI to assist local law enforcement’s efforts to locate the Democratic lawmakers, telling NBC News that FBI Director Kash Patel told him he was assigning agents from San Antonio and Austin to “respond to my request.”
(It’s unclear exactly what those agents would actually do, and a federal law enforcement agent told NBC News on Thursday that FBI agents had yet to take any actions to try to locate the lawmakers.)
Meanwhile, while Cornyn has been deeply critical of the Democrats who left Texas to stop the state Legislature from proceeding with redistricting legislation, he and his campaign have also trained their fire on Paxton too.
“Apparently the attorney general is now back from his European golf vacation and actually trying to do his job,” Cornyn told NBC News on Thursday night, repeatedly returning to criticism of Paxton throughout a 15-minute interview about the efforts to track down Democrats. He said Paxton was “nowhere to be found when things were developing this week,” lampooning the attorney general for doing interviews from a hotel with a “European electrical outlet.”
Cornyn also filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Abbott’s push to boot Wu from office, a brief he delivered on U.S. Senate letterhead that included a paragraph criticizing Paxton’s legal briefs and actions, arguing that Abbott rightfully filed his case because Paxton “delayed taking action.”
Cornyn has been pushing similar messages on social media, where Paxton has pushed back. On Thursday, Paxton reposted a video of Democratic U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett calling Cornyn someone who “typically works in a very bipartisan way,” claiming he was only “doing everything he can to make it seem like he’s a MAGA Republican so he can get through his primary.”
“I’m Ken Paxton and I approve this message,” the attorney general wrote on X, sharing the video of Crockett.
The Senate primary battle has become one of the most contentious midterm election contests in the country. Cornyn has repeatedly brought up the litany of controversies related to the Texas Legislature’s unsuccessful push to remove Paxton from office two years ago, and Paxton has framed Cornyn as insufficiently conservative and not a true believer in Trump, highlighting his past criticism of the president.
Both candidates are tying themselves to Trump, who hasn’t weighed in with his endorsement. Cornyn told NBC News last month that he’s talked to the president “about it a number of times.”
Public surveys have found Paxton leading Cornyn in the GOP primary, but some Republicans have sounded alarms that Paxton’s controversies would make for a more competitive general election with him as the nominee.
