Texas Senate Republican Primary Runoff

Texas’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, has defeated the incumbent senator John Cornyn, who has represented the state since 2002. Cornyn received support from prominent members of the G.O.P., including Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Rick Perry, the former Texas governor. Paxton’s campaign was supported by major MAGA figures, including Steve Bannon, Laura Loomer, and Ted Nugent. A week before the vote, Donald Trump endorsed Paxton, all but sealing the outcome.

Paxton first gained national attention when he sued four key battleground states in an attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. He has also been the subject of several scandals during his tenure. In 2015, he was indicted on two counts of securities fraud and one count of failing to register as an investment adviser with state regulators. In 2024, Paxton agreed to pay nearly three hundred thousand dollars in restitution and to perform a hundred hours of community service, without admitting wrongdoing. In 2023, Paxton was also accused of abusing his office to assist in the case of Nate Paul, a real-estate developer and a donor to Paxton’s campaign who was separately charged with wire fraud and making false statements on loan applications. Paul had allegedly helped fund a renovation of Paxton’s Austin home and had hired a woman with whom Paxton was reportedly having an extramarital affair. Paxton was impeached by the Texas House before being acquitted by the state Senate.

He will now face the Democrat James Talarico, a state representative and former public-school teacher, whose long-shot bid for the Senate has generated national attention.

Texas Congressional Primary Runoffs

Johnny Garcia, a local sheriff’s deputy won the Democratic primary for Texas’s Thirty-fifth Congressional District, defeating Maureen Galindo, a housing advocate and a sex therapist. The race had recently gained national attention. Galindo, in criticizing ICE detention centers, said in a post on Instagram that a local immigration facility should be turned into “a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.” Galindo added that the facility should be “a castration-processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists.” Galindo insisted that she was not antisemitic, and told a radio show she was opposed only to “Zionist Jews”; she later said in a video that “putting billionaire zionists in prison DOES NOT MEAN putting all Jews in internment camps.” She also said that Garcia should be tried for treason over his support for Israel. Democrats distanced themselves from Galindo, with the Democratic Senate candidate, James Talarico, endorsing Garcia and calling Galindo’s remarks “antisemitic.” The House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, accused the G.O.P. of supporting Galindo through a political-action committee, in an attempt to make the general-election matchup more favorable for Republicans.