Texas's Knife Fight
Two Republican heavyweights walked into a phone booth on March 3. Neither came out. The Texas Senate Republican primary ended with John Cornyn at 41.9% and Ken Paxton at 40.7% — a margin slim enough to paper over with a receipt from a Whataburger run. Now they head into a May 26 runoff, and by every account from people who know Texas politics, it's going to get ugly before it gets resolved. That's fine. Contested primaries are democracy working as intended. What makes this one worth paying attention to isn't the personal animus between two men who clearly can't stand each other — it's what each of them represents about the direction of the Republican Party. This isn't just a Senate race. It's a referendum on what conservatism is supposed to mean in 2026.
John Cornyn has been in the Senate since 2002. That's four terms, countless committee assignments, and a record that includes — depending on who you ask — either admirable willingness to legislate or unforgivable accommodation to the left. He shepherded a federal gun safety bill through the Senate after the Sutherland Springs shooting. He worked with Mitch McConnell when McConnell was running the show. His Heritage Action score sits at 66%. For comparison, the average Republican senator scores higher. [1] To the MAGA base, those aren't just policy differences — they're disqualifying facts. Radio hosts in Texas have been beating the drum on Cornyn's record for months. Paxton himself said on the trail that some Republican voters "were fooled" by Cornyn's ads, and that he'd need to "continue educating people" about what the incumbent actually stands for. [2]

