Texas Senate runoff

The Texas Republican Senate runoff between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton is scheduled for 26 May 2026, with combined spending across both rounds exceeding $120 million — the most expensive Senate primary in US history. Pro-Cornyn forces are outspending pro-Paxton forces 4-to-1 in the runoff. The drama of the final week centred on Fellowship PAC, which filed a $1.75 million independent expenditure supporting Paxton, then amended its FEC filing to remove the buy after pressure from Trump adviser Chris LaCivita and the NRSC. The ads never aired.

On the Democratic side, state representative James Talarico raised $27 million in Q1 2026 — the largest quarterly Senate haul on record in any state — with 97% of donations under $100 and 540,000-plus donors across 246 of Texas's 254 counties. Talarico's Q1 record positions him as the Democratic nominee regardless of the Republican runoff outcome, and his grassroots-only fundraising model has attracted national attention as a contrast to the PAC-dominated Republican primary.

The Cornyn-Paxton contest is a proxy war for the direction of the Texas Republican Party and the limits of Trump's endorsement power. Cornyn was Senate Republican leader for eight years before stepping down; Paxton was impeached by the Texas House in 2023 and acquitted by the state Senate after a contested process. The race has national implications: control of the US Senate may depend on whether Texas remains safely Republican in November.