Trump completes his month of GOP revenge, and other takeaways from the Texas runoffs

By Eric Bradner, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump finished his monthlong revenge tour in Texas on Tuesday night.

The president’s national approval ratings may be near their weakest overall. But a series of red-state primaries in May have shown that conservative voters remain fiercely supportive of Trump – and willing to turn against those he deems disloyal.

After toppling incumbents in Indiana, Kentucky and Louisiana, Trump got what he wanted in Texas when Ken Paxton, the controversial state attorney general, defeated four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.

Now, Republicans face the prospect of ponying up to defend a red-state seat in a race against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico that could become the most expensive contest in history.

Republican senators and top operatives believed Cornyn was a shoo-in for reelection if he could survive the primary and that Paxton was a weaker general election candidate. But Trump decided to ignore months of Senate leadership’s lobbying for the president to back Cornyn or stay out of the runoff by issuing a late endorsement of Paxton. Trump’s move effectively sealed Cornyn’s political fate.

In his victory speech, Paxton called Trump’s endorsement “the most powerful force in politics.”

Here are takeaways from the Texas primary runoff:

Speed bumps ahead

Trump has ousted Indiana state Senate Republican incumbents who refused to support his push for redistricting, toppled a frequent critic in Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and unseated Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump after his second impeachment following the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Cornyn voted to acquit Trump then but was slow to endorse him in his third bid for the White House. He said in 2023 that Trump had “a unique ability to rally his base, but not to grow beyond his base, which is a problem.”

Still, while Trump’s endorsement is potent in Republican primaries, he also has a long history of supporting candidates who alienated the broader electorate and lost winnable general elections.

Republicans will seek to prevent Paxton from joining a list of doomed Trump-backed candidates that includes Herschel Walker in Georgia, Kari Lake and Blake Masters in Arizona, and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.

Trump, meanwhile, will also face seven more months of Republican majorities on Capitol Hill where lawmakers like Massie, Cassidy and Cornyn are now untethered from the political demands of reelection.

The fractures are already showing up in Washington. Last week, the Senate broke with Trump over his request to fund a White House ballroom and create an “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate those Trump’s administration thinks to have been politically prosecuted.

Talarico takes center stage

While Paxton and Cornyn battled, the Democratic nominee, Talarico, was raising huge amounts of money and working to consolidate his party, including the Black voters who backed US Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the primary. (That effort included a stop for tacos with former President Barack Obama earlier this month.)

With the general election matchup now set, Talarico — a Presbyterian seminarian who has broken early fundraising records — will move back into the spotlight.

And so, believe it or not, will his taco order during his stop with Obama: Potato, egg and cheese. Republicans used it to falsely claim Talarico is secretly a vegan. His campaign responded by posting a photo of him eating a turkey leg at the State Fair of Texas. But Paxton riffed on the taco tussle in his victory speech, previewing what is expected to be an expensive GOP effort to paint Talarico as outside the mainstream. He called Talarico “Tofu Talarico” and several other derisive nicknames: “Six-gender James,” “James Tala-freak-o” and “Low-T Talarico.”

“My opponent is the most extreme radical the Democrats have ever nominated,” Paxton said.

Of course, as Republicans seek to cast Talarico as too liberal for a reliably red state, Democrats will seek to shine a bright spotlight on Paxton’s long history of scandal — including securities fraud charges he once faced, allegations of accepting bribes, his 2023 impeachment over his request for $3.3 million in state funds for a settlement with those whistleblowers and his divorce, with his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, alleging infidelity.

(The Senate Republicans’ campaign arm Tuesday night appeared to have deleted a statement on its website bringing up the divorce, a sign of its pivot after Cornyn’s loss.)

“Without a shadow of a doubt, I will be the Democrats’ No. 1 target in November,” Paxton told supporters.

To win, Paxton will have to rally Republican voters who were split in the primary and runoff. He started seeking to do that Tuesday night, when he didn’t repeat any of the years of jabs he’d thrown at Cornyn. “I want to thank Sen. Cornyn for his service to this state,” he said, adding that he wants to earn the votes of Cornyn’s supporters.

“I’ve won three statewide elections because I know how critical it is for our party to come together, and that’s what we must do now,” Paxton said.

‘MAGA Mayes’ wins GOP AG nod over Chip Roy

Even with Paxton departing, the Texas attorney general’s office would be poised to remain a thorn in the side of Democratic presidents no matter who won Tuesday’s runoff: US Rep. Chip Roy or state Sen. Mayes Middleton.

Middleton — an oil-and-gas heir who branded himself “MAGA Mayes” — emerged on Tuesday, defeating Roy, a former Paxton deputy and chief of staff for Sen. Ted Cruz as well as a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

Trump didn’t endorse a candidate. But the race revolved around questions of loyalty to him anyway.

As Roy touted his own credentials and independence, Middleton used Roy’s support for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, his criticism of Trump’s conduct on January 6, 2021, as well as his occasional breaks with Trump on policy matters, to cast him as an untrustworthy ally for the president.

Middleton will face Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson, who won a runoff Tuesday. Johnson campaigned on his ability to work across the aisle in Austin, saying he would steer the attorney general’s office away from the strident partisanship of Paxton’s tenure.

Houston Democrats settle a generational debate

When Texas Republicans redrew the state’s congressional districts last year, their map effectively forced two Black Democratic lawmakers, Reps. Al Green and Christian Menefee, into the Houston-based 18th District.

Menefee, 38, defeated the 78-year-old Green in Tuesday’s runoff.

His win comes against the backdrop of a debate over generational change within the Democratic Party, after Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in 2020 while still on the bench handed conservatives another seat and former President Joe Biden’s decision to run for reelection doomed the party’s 2024 hopes.

Compared to Green, who was first elected to the House in 2004, Menefee, a former Harris County attorney, is a newcomer, sworn in this February after winning a special election. He was boosted by $5 million in spending by a crypto-backed super PAC, which was looking to oust Green, a crypto skeptic and member of the House Financial Services Committee.

The race wasn’t only about generational dynamics. While Menefee might represent the party’s future, Green led the way in pursuing a confrontational approach with Trump — who he has repeatedly sought to impeach. He was censured by the House last year after heckling Trump during his State of the Union.

Colin Allred makes a comeback

Another Democratic battle played out in the Dallas-area 33rd District, where a former congressman, Colin Allred, took on Rep. Julie Johnson, who replaced him in the House when Allred opted to launch a Senate run in 2024.

Allred lost then, and he looked poised to lose again this year when he was competing against Talarico in the Senate primary.

But in December, on the last day to file to run for office, he pivoted, dropping out of the Senate race just as Crockett entered and launching a campaign for the 33rd District seat. And on Tuesday, he defeated Johnson — clearing the way for his likely return to Congress next year.

Both Allred and Johnson represented the 32nd District. But after redistricting last year, the two were competing instead for the 33rd District seat, which was drawn to be heavily Democratic — all but ensuring Allred’s comeback bid will end with a win in November.

Democrats escape a disaster

National Democrats are breathing a sigh of relief after Maureen Galindo, a sex therapist and housing advocate whose use of antisemitic tropes in criticizing Israel drew national attention and widespread condemnation from members of both parties, lost the 35th District House primary runoff to Johnny Garcia, a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy.

Garcia will face Republican Carlos De La Cruz, an Air Force veteran endorsed by Trump. De La Cruz is the brother of Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a Republican who represents a neighboring district.

The district was drawn to be a pickup opportunity for Republicans, but it’s expected to be competitive in November, as Democrats look to undo the gains Trump made with Latino voters in South Texas in 2024.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.