President Fires Vague Threat at Paxton
for Vow Not to Quit Race Without Fight
Capitol Inside
March 5, 2026
GOP leaders visions of a united front for November appeared to be a delusion of the past on Thursday night after President Donald Trump issued an ominous threat to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the wake of his vow to stay in the U.S. Senate fight regardless of who the nation's top leader endorses for a runoff.
“Well, that’s bad for him to say,” Trump said when asked about the AG's defiance in an interview with Politico. "That is bad for him. So maybe, maybe that leads me to go the other direction.”
Trump's meddling into the Texas race has been an unexpected gift for James Talarico as the newly-crowned Senate nominee for the Democrats after defeating Jasmine Crockett by more than 6 points in primary election on Tuesday with almost 53 percent of the vote. After watching helplessly as Talarico beat a foe who'd been more famous in a fight that was remarkably positive for a race with stakes so high, the Republicans find themselves in a potential lose-lose-lose position as a consequence of the president's dawdling on an endorsement and subsequent intervention with his plans to pick the winner instead of letting the voters in Texas make the call.
A significant number of Republicans won't vote for Cornyn under any circumstances including a pitch and pressure from the president. The same can be said for many Cornyn supporters who would skip the Senate contest before they'd cast votes for the attorney general, who carries considerable baggage already. Sixty Texas House Republicans voted to impeach the attorney in 2023 on an array of corruption charges including some involving a donor and alleged mistress. Paxton's wife who's a state senator left him last year and filed for divorce on biblical grounds in apparent references to allegations of accusations of infidelity that he faced during the ordeal.
But the attorney general's supporters on the right have stood by him through thick and thin - and they pleaded with the president throughout the day to shelve his plans to endorse Cornyn so the voters could decide who the nominee for the Senate will be in November.
Texas actor Randy Quaid - a Houston native - joined the chorus of conservatives pushing for an endorsement for Paxton in posts on X on Wednesday night and Thursday. Quaid did not dispute another X user's claim that the attorney general would "go down as one of the biggest political cucks in U.S. history" if he bows out of the Senate runoff and the voting bill stalls in the Senate anyway.
"Completely agree, but Ken Ken won’t drop unless it’s passed; and Ken can get it done! Ken’s the man ‘cause Ken can!" Quaid said in the AG's defense.
While the slash-and-burn tactics showed no signs of abating as the Trump endorsement furor escalated today, there was no bad blood across the aisle after Crockett congratulated Talarico on the win and promised to be in the trenches for him as the Senate fight progressed in the coming months.
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick - the Trump campaign chairman in Texas - sought to distract from the focus on Trump's wavering in the Texas race when he suggested that a third contender, U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, deserved a substantial amount of blame for entering the race when he had no realistic chance to be the nominee. Hunt, who's Black, received less than 14 percent of the primary vote - but that was a sufficient amount to force the frontrunners into overtime.
“Wesley Hunt should have never gotten in this race,” Patrick said in an interview with talk shot host Mark Davis on Dallas radio. “Wesley's a good friend. But I scratch my head why he got in that race."
more to come ... | 
