How Ken Paxton courted Donald Trump and won his endorsement
By Patrick Svitek, Kristen Holmes, Alayna Treene, CNN
(CNN) — It seemed like the end of the road for Ken Paxton.
The Texas attorney general had underperformed expectations in the state’s March 3 Republican primary for Senate, narrowly trailing long-endangered incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. Trump was on the verge of endorsing Cornyn, promising to make a choice “soon” and demanding that the candidate he did not endorse drop out. Paxton had made clear he would not abide by such an arrangement, something Trump said was a “bad” move by Paxton.
So Paxton tried something new: At 12:18 p.m. on March 5, he posted on X that he would consider dropping out if Senate Republicans abolished the filibuster to pass the Save America Act, a Trump priority bill to impose new voter ID restrictions. Paxton texted Trump the post to make sure he saw it.
It was a “Hail Mary,” as one person familiar with the matter put it, but it appeared to pay off. Trump was already frustrated that his intentions to endorse Cornyn had been leaked and allies had been calling nonstop to tell him that a Cornyn endorsement would be a betrayal to his loyal base. Trump held off on endorsing in the runoff for 75 days — and then on Tuesday, Trump abruptly gave his support to Paxton.
The chain of events was as exhilarating to Paxton supporters who have long seen him as far more loyal to Trump — and worthy of his endorsement — as it was devastating to many of Cornyn’s colleagues in the Senate.
“This is the president’s party, let’s just be very, very clear,” said Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas, an early Paxton supporter who brought him to this year’s State of the Union. “I think it is incumbent upon members of Congress and others to just remember that — remember that when it comes to the president’s agenda.”
Officials noted that Paxton’s gambit on the legislation paid off with the president and kept him in the mix long enough for the tides to turn in his favor. Sources familiar with the decision-making process said Trump also likes Paxton more and always has, and that it wasn’t a heavy lift to convince him of Cornyn being a fair-weather fan.
White House officials said Trump has also been feeling emboldened after helping unseat Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana on Saturday and a group of Indiana state lawmakers earlier this month, amounting to a hot streak of political revenge.
While Cornyn and Trump have generally worked well together, the president has not forgotten how Cornyn said in 2023 that Trump’s time “has passed him by,” a comment that Paxton has regularly highlighted — and that Trump alluded to Tuesday.
Trump’s endorsement instantly makes Paxton the front-runner in what had been considered a highly competitive May 26 runoff. Still, the endorsement could saddle Senate GOP leaders with a nominee whom Republican-affiliated groups have spent tens of millions of dollars attacking and portraying as unelectable.
It’s a whirlwind turnaround that Democrats hope will upend the fight for Senate control.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said after Trump’s endorsement of Paxton that Democrats are in “much better shape” to win the Texas race. Inside the White House, officials acknowledged there might be work to do to help boost Paxton but brushed off the idea that any Republican was going to be easily defeated in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat statewide in three decades.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune had talked with Trump about the race frequently in recent months, hoping to nudge him off the sidelines in favor of Cornyn. But Trump’s relationship with the Senate GOP has been under strain in recent days as the Senate parliamentarian rejected Republicans’ plans to secure funding for Trump’s White House ballroom and as Thune criticized a planned $1.776 billion legal compensation fund for Trump’s allies.
Asked Tuesday how he learned about Trump’s endorsement of Paxton, Thune indicated the president did not give him a heads-up.
“I found out, I think, the way everyone else did,” Thune said. He is still backing Cornyn.
Keeping Trump at bay — at first
Cornyn, 74, had always faced an uphill battle in his bid for a fifth term in the Senate, having partnered with Democrats to pass new gun safety rules in 2022 and having been slow to get behind Trump in his 2024 presidential campaign. But Cornyn pushed ahead, powered by personal animosity toward Paxton and belief that he could wage the first well-funded campaign to educate voters about Paxton’s long list of scandals.
Cornyn regularly noted he had voted with Trump almost 100% of the time and walked back his 2023 comments, admitting he was wrong about Trump’s staying power.
It appeared to keep Trump at bay initially. The president, who once bashed Cornyn over the gun legislation, repeatedly said he liked both Cornyn and Paxton and felt conflicted.
Trump’s lack of an endorsement before the March 3 primary gave rise to a third candidate — Rep. Wesley Hunt, also a Trump loyalist — who jumped in the primary late and made it more likely that there would be a runoff. Hunt’s candidacy deflated Cornyn allies who were starting to see the senator’s polling turn around.
But pro-Cornyn groups — as well as a pro-Paxton outfit — launched a furious wave of attack ads that helped ensure Hunt finished a distant third.
Cornyn finished slightly ahead of Paxton, though below the 50% he needed to avoid a runoff. Paxton was still triumphant in his primary night speech, raising the prospect he would win the runoff by over 30%. Cornyn, for his part, promised “Judgment Day” was coming for Paxton but declined to speculate about Trump’s support while speaking with reporters that night.
“There’s only one person on the planet who knows what President Trump’s going to do,” Cornyn said, “and that’s him.”
‘I trust the president’
Even after the Save America Act gambit, Paxton and his allies kept up his efforts to earn Trump’s endorsement — or at least prevent him from backing Cornyn.
A pro-Paxton super PAC ran ads attacking Cornyn in the Florida media market that includes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Days later, Paxton traveled to the resort to briefly meet with Trump on the sidelines of a gala there. Back home, he continued appearing at events for Trump-aligned groups, including at a Dallas-area gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference, which Cornyn skipped.
Cornyn also found new ways to embrace the president. Last week, he introduced legislation to name a major Texas highway “Interstate 47” in honor of Trump.
Early voting for the runoff began Monday, and Cornyn was convinced he would be able to close out the race without having to worry about an 11th-hour intervention by the president. “I think that ship has finally sailed,” he told reporters Monday in Austin, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Yet looming over the start of early voting in Texas was the Saturday primary in neighboring Louisiana. Cassidy got crushed in his reelection bid and finished third to a Trump-backed challenger, Rep. Julia Letlow, and another pro-Trump opponent, John Fleming. Trump took multiple victory laps on social media, and Paxton wasted little time taking encouragement from Cassidy’s defeat.
“The fact that Bill Cassidy lost so overwhelmingly in Louisiana is beginning to send the message and I believe creates momentum for our campaign in Texas,” Paxton said Monday morning in a radio interview.
Trump called Paxton on Tuesday morning to let him know he would endorse him, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation. “I think you’re going to like what I’m doing today,” Trump told Paxton, according to the attorney general in a Fox News interview later Tuesday.
After Trump called Paxton, the president told reporters at the White House he was ready to announce his endorsement in the runoff and would do so at 12:30 or 1 p.m.
Paxton kept a straight face during a media appearance minutes later.
“I trust the president,” Paxton said. “I know he’ll make a good decision.”
To some of Paxton’s allies, it appeared Trump wanted to endorse Paxton all along but first wanted to see what he could extract from Cornyn, whether it be his change of heart on the filibuster or anything else. Cornyn’s allies believe they had been making headway with their arguments that Paxton was too risky — and costly — of a bet for the general election.
It was a little reminiscent of Paxton’s 2022 primary for reelection against Land Commissioner George P. Bush, when Trump briefly held out the possibility he could back Bush, who had also moved to fashion himself as more pro-Trump. But Trump endorsed Paxton, who crushed Bush in a runoff.
“He can read the writing on the wall,” Nehls said of the president. “He loves Texas. Texas loves the president. I’ve had many conversations with him about this race going back to two years ago already, and I just knew that Ken Paxton was going to win.”
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