Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Wednesday that he might challenge incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn in 2026.
“Everything is on the table for me now that I’ve been through this [impeachment],” Paxton told Tucker Carlson Wednesday. “I’ve seen how guys like John Cornyn have represented the state of Texas, and not represented us. I think it’s time somebody needs to step up and run against this guy that will do the job the right way and represent us and worry about what’s going on at the border.”
Paxton said that Cornyn, who is serving his fourth term in the upper chamber, has never had any real competition for his seat and gets support from Republicans including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
While Paxton said that Cornyn has not been very outspoken about the southern border crisis, regarding which Paxton has filed more than 45 lawsuits against the administration of President Joe Biden, he did speak out against Biden in the televised interview Wednesday.
“It’s chaos, and I ask myself, what’s it going to take for the Biden administration to pay attention,” Cornyn said in the interview, referring to reports of 4,000 illegal migrants overwhelming Customs and Border Protection agents near Eagle Pass. “The President’s afraid of the progressive base, who believes in open borders, so that’s his policy.”
Cornyn also praised recent actions by Gov. Greg Abbott, who deployed Texas National Guard troops and other law enforcement to the area.
“I’m proud of the work that Governor Abbott, the Texas legislature — leadership there — National Guard, and Department of Public Safety have done,” Cornyn said. “Frankly, if they weren’t doing it, nothing would be there between the cartels and our country, and it would be immeasurably worse.”
Paxton, however, said that he believes Cornyn has been in the Senate for “too long” and that his views no longer align with those of most Texans.
“John Cornyn has been vacant on this issue,” Paxton said. "To me, he’s been in Washington too long. He has been there for 14 years or so, and I can’t think of a single thing he has accomplished for our state, or even for the country, let alone that we have a massive invasion into our state.”
Paxton has served as attorney general since 2015 and won his third four-year term in November 2022.