Ousted GOP senator fears 'disastrous' election thanks to 'lazy' candidate

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Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton in Conroe, Texas, U.S., January 29, 2022. REUTERS/Go Nakamura

WASHINGTON — One of the things Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is best known for among his congressional peers is the hundreds of millions of dollars he’s raised, funneling cash to fellow Senate Republicans from the vast donor network he’s built over decades as a mainstay of the Texas GOP.

But don’t expect him to raise money for Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race.

Instead, Cornyn said he plans to use his considerable fundraising prowess to help colleagues elsewhere.

“What I'm doing is I'm raising money to help in places like New Hampshire and Michigan and Alaska, and some of these other states where I think we’ve got close races,” Cornyn said in an interview with The Texas Tribune last week.

Texas can be a “black hole when it comes to campaign cash”, Cornyn said, noting his money will go further in other competitive states. And it’s on Paxton and his allies now, he said, to broaden his coalition, including to donors.

A person close to Paxton, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the attorney general has pursued a full court press of Cornyn's largest donors.

Cornyn said he “remain[s] a good Republican” who wants to see the GOP maintain control of the Senate, and he opposes Democrat James Talarico’s policies. But his assessment of his former opponent — whom he spent months bashing on the campaign trail during the primary — has not changed much over the three months since the general election began.

“Paxton’s a poor campaigner,” Cornyn said. “He’s lazy and doesn’t raise money. And he basically is not offering a very compelling case for his election. He’s making this harder than it needs to be. But so be it — we are where we are.”

Paxton did not respond to a request for comment on Cornyn’s stance.

Cornyn made the case throughout the primary that he feared Paxton would jeopardize the era of Republican dominance in Texas politics — a warning which was not heeded by the primary runoff voters, who selected Paxton as their nominee by a wide margin.

He still sees trouble. And free from the political pressures of running for reelection for the first time in decades, Cornyn’s not been shy about sharing his view.

“This is unfortunately shaping up to be a close and I hope not disastrous election,” Cornyn said. “But it ain’t looking good right now.”

Polling this summer has shown a tight race between Paxton and Talarico, with numerous surveys showing Talarico ahead, though within the margin of error — nonetheless a striking trend in a state no Democrat has won in over 30 years.

Paxton won the nomination in March despite being outraised and outspent by Cornyn and his allies. His fundraising gap with Talarico is even starker — the Democrat raised $30 million in the second quarter of 2026 to Paxton’s $9 million, and has thus far Talarico has outspent Paxton in direct advertising dollars by a factor of nearly 200-to-1.

Many of Cornyn’s top donors, longtime givers in Texas GOP circles, have thus far sat out the Senate race since the runoff. Cornyn suggested the president, whose main super PAC is sitting on over $400 million, could take financial responsibility for Paxton’s campaign.

“He could write a check if he wanted Paxton to be the nominee, with all his wrinkles and warts — then it’s a simple solution to that,” Cornyn said.

Trump was in Houston Thursday to fundraise for Paxton as part of a Republican National Committee fundraiser.

And resources are en route for Paxton. The main super PAC supporting him, Lone Star Liberty PAC, placed its first general election broadcast ad buy this week, and a handful of other GOP groups have already begun spending on his behalf, with more expected come September.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which was all in for Cornyn during the primary before backing Paxton after the attorney general won the primary, expressed confidence in its candidate’s fundraising and campaign.

“Ken Paxton is raising record-breaking resources, building impressive grassroots support, and working in lockstep with President Trump to execute a winning campaign plan that will keep Texas red and ensure James Talarico doesn't come anywhere close to the U.S. Senate,” said NRSC Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell.

The primary between Cornyn and Paxton was as ugly as it was expensive. While Cornyn finished in first place narrowly in the initial March contest, Paxton surged ahead with a smaller electorate in May, winning by 28 percentage points.

Part of Paxton’s task during the general election campaign is to unite the party after the fractious primary, in which voters saw tens of millions of dollars worth of attacks against him.

Cornyn still received over 500,000 votes in the runoff, and Paxton took a gracious posture that night, thanking the senator for his service and saying he wanted to earn the support of his voters and unite the party.

The attorney general told Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on his podcast in June that he would love Cornyn’s help and that he would have voted for Cornyn “10 times” before Talarico.

But Cornyn is worried that there has not been enough outreach toward his supporters to make them feel they are still welcome in the Republican tent.

“I can’t tell that any of the supporters of Paxton have done diddly squat to reach out to what I would call mainstream traditional Republicans in Texas,” Cornyn said.

The person close to Paxton said the attorney general has reached out to Cornyn multiple times, but has been met with silence.

In elevating Paxton over Cornyn with his endorsement, Trump jettisoned an experienced Senate operator with seven months of his term still ahead of him. Over the first three, the administration has had several occasions to feel the repercussions.

Cornyn has wielded the power of his vote to compel the administration to commit to funding a global HIV prevention program, move more quickly on border reimbursement and, most notably, get written modifications to a controversial “anti-weaponization” fund at the Department of Justice before voting to move Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination forward.

The senator also spoke out in August at the arrival of machinery in Big Bend National Park asking the Department of Homeland Security to halt construction until it had met with stakeholders on the ground — a request it ended up honoring.

The Senate GOP will return to Washington in September aiming to protect vulnerable incumbents and amidst tensions with an administration that Cornyn said “can be very vindictive”.

Free from political repercussions, Cornyn said he’ll continue to evaluate topics as they arise.

“I’ve made very clear to the administration, I don’t intend to just be a thorn in their side for the sake of being a thorn in their side,” Cornyn said. “But basically, the president has relieved me of any political concerns [and] considerations…so I’m just making these calls on a case-by-case basis where I think these are deserving issues.”

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

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