The May 26 Republican primary runoff between Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton and four-term U.S. Sen. John Cornyn was neck-and-neck in the polls. But after receiving President Donald Trump's endorsement last week, Paxton secured a decisive victory with nearly 64% of the vote.
He will now face far-left state Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin), who favors open borders and allowing boys to play in girls' sports and claims, "God is non-binary," in the November general election.
Cathie Adams is a former chairman of the Republican Party of Texas who now serves as second vice president of Eagle Forum, an advocacy organization that promotes socially conservative policies and limited government.
She thinks Paxton's personal life could be a problem in the general election.
"I don't think anyone … who has a spiritual understanding at all could vote for Talarico, but would they not vote, or would they vote for this flawed candidate, Ken Paxton?" she poses. "Since his time as attorney general, he has gone from being a married man with four children to now having multiple different liaisons."
Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, hopes people stay mindful of the fact that "every time we vote, we're voting for a sinner of one type or another."
"We need to elect candidates to office that support the things we support: the sanctity of life, marriage between a man and a woman, secure borders, stopping the radical transgender and LGBTQ agenda," he insists. "Paxton, the candidate that the Republicans have nominated in Texas, is on our side on all of those issues."
Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) called Paxton's "landslide victory" a massive win for the conservative grassroots in the state.
"The establishment got absolutely crushed [with] approximately a 30-point victory over a four-term incumbent who massively outspent Attorney Gen. Paxton," Rep. Harrison told American Family Radio Wednesday. "On paper, Sen. Cornyn should have been able to put this race to bed a long time ago, but not only was he not able to do that, the conservative grassroots turned out; they turned out in droves, aided in the last week by President Trump and his support to oust a four-term incumbent senator."
Harrison also took a moment to jab "the political class" for being so wrong about this race and in general.
He said they often tell people that to have electoral success at the ballot box, conservatives and Republicans need to moderate their views, to go along to get along in the swamp.
"In my opinion, they're 180 degrees off," Harrison told Jenna Ellis. "The reality is that voters are sick and tired of sending people to office who claim they're Republicans, who pledge to fight the Democrats, who pledge to stand up to the liberals that want to indoctrinate and bankrupt the next generation, only to, once they get elected, sell out, put those Democrats in power, collude with them to destroy liberty for the next generation of Texans."
Harrison called this a problem entirely of the establishment Republican's own making, adding that Sen. Cornyn's decisions to be "insufficiently conservative on key Republican issues" like border security and the Second Amendment led to his defeat.
"It's a huge victory for conservatives in The Lone Star State, and I hope people across the country are taking notice," Harrison added.
Conservative commentator Tom Pauken, who served on Ronald Reagan's White House staff and later became chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, worries that Republican turnout could be a problem in the fall.
He thinks President Trump calling Paxton a "true MAGA warrior" was a huge factor in the attorney general's win this week, clearly showing that Trump has "significant influence" with Texas Republicans. Still, he foresees a potential problem in the November election.
"The turnout was lower in the Republican primary than the Democratic primary, which is very unusual in Texas," Pauken tells AFN. "I'm just afraid that in November, our people won't have an incentive to get out to vote while the Democrats will be fired up. That's been more my worry than anything else."
Based on official statewide totals, the Democratic primary saw about 2.3 million votes, and the Republican primary only saw about 2.1–2.2 million, which means Democrats outvoted Republicans by roughly 100,000 ballots.
Democratic primaries tend to draw more engagement in certain cycles, but commentators generally downplay the significance, saying the electorates of primaries and general elections differ substantially.
