Texas AG Would Weigh White Flag for OT
if Senate Leaders Clear Way for Voting Bill
Capitol Inside
March 5, 2026
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton offered to contemplate the possibility of an early exit from the U.S. Senate race on Thursday if the chamber's Republican leaders would remove the obstacle of a filibuster to clear the path for a new round of voting restrictions in legislation called the Save America Act.
Paxton raised the specter of a decision to leave his campaign on the sacrificial altar in the wake of President Donald Trump's announcement on Wednesday night that he would be endorsing one of the Republicans who advanced to a runoff in the Texas Senate contest. Trump said he would order the candidate he didn't choose to quit the race. The prevailing assumption has been that the president would select Cornyn to be the GOP nominee in November as the candidate who the Senate leadership and party establishment forces have been urging Trump to endorse.
Paxton's immediate reaction to the Trump's plans to pick the runoff winner in the Senate fight was defiant - according to social media accounts - with the AG saying that he would not be the candidate who bows out in the presidential narrative.
The deal that the attorney general floated in connection with the voting eligibility measure appears at first blush to be a way for Paxton to save face in a manner that other partisan Republicans see as heroic. But the AG's apparent flirtation with martyrdom could be a bluff that might increase his chances of securing Trump's blessings for the race at the incumbent Cornyn's expense.
Paxton finished 1 point behind Cornyn in the primary election on Tuesday when they scored 42 percent and 41 percent of the vote in the Senate race respectively. Paxton managed to stay close despite a massive advantage that the incumbent enjoyed in the money the two had for the battle in round one. The AG could have the edge in overtime in a state where conservatives typically vote in higher numbers in runoff elections for the GOP.
While Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick have called for GOP voters to unite when the general election lineup is set, Paxton showed no signs of going easy on Cornyn in the event that he's the nominee by default in the wake of a white towel waving from the AG. Paxton reminded social media followers about the reasons why he has been so close to Trump.
"John Cornyn is a coward who has refused to support abolishing the filibuster to pass this bill," Paxton contended in a post on X. "Now, Fake News reporters and the establishment are trying to destroy me with misinformation. The truth is clear: No one has been more loyal to Donald Trump than me—fighting the stolen 2020 election, being in Mar-a-Lago when he announced his 2024 campaign, and standing with him in NY in the face of lawfare."
Cornyn responded to Paxton's proposal on the voting limitations legislation in a tweet that sought to set the record straight without the standard vitriol and insults that have become common to the fight on both sides.
"I repeat what I have consistently said: I support the bill and have encouraged Senate Republicans to get it done," Cornyn said in the terse rebuke.
Trump's sudden intervention in the Texas Senate competition is the most glaring sign yet on the level of fear that Republicans have about their prospects in the fall with James Talarico as the nominee for the Democrats after a victory for the ages over Jasmine Crockett in round one.
But the anointment of a Senate nominee by the president has massive potential to backfire in light of the fact that a substantial number of Paxton supporters are not going to vote for Cornyn under any circumstances. Some Republicans, by the same token, would rather skip the Senate race on the November ballot if Paxton is the standard-bearer for the party. That wouldn't change even if the two current runoff candidates played nice for the cameras at some point in the event of a bailing by one or the other at Trump's command.
more to come ...
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