Trump says Cornyn and Rove would be to blame if Paxton loses Texas Senate race
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President Donald Trump said Sen. John Cornyn and strategist Karl Rove would be responsible if Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton loses, as polls show Democrat James Talarico narrowly ahead.
President Donald Trump said on Thursday that if Texas Senate nominee Ken Paxton is defeated, the fault will belong to incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn and conservative commentator Karl Rove. Trump said the two were "doing everything possible to make it hard" for Paxton, the state attorney general, to defeat Democratic candidate James Talarico.
"If Ken Paxton loses, it will be because of WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Political Hacks like John Cornyn and Karl Rove, who have ineffectively opposed me for my entire political career," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Recent polls indicate that Talarico holds a low-to-mid single-digit lead over Paxton, making the race one of the most closely watched in the 2026 midterm cycle. Texas, a traditionally Republican state that has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988, voted for Trump over Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris by nearly 14 points in 2024.
Cornyn’s office and Rove did not respond to requests for comment. Trump’s endorsement of Paxton in the GOP primary was seen as a challenge to Cornyn, whom the president has previously labeled disloyal. The contest has attracted major funding, with GOP spending exceeding $370 million, outpacing Democratic expenditures by about $235 million, according to AdImpact.
Trump has also criticized Rove in past posts, calling him a "loser" and urging media outlets to stop featuring him. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Rove said he would support a Democratic candidate in a different Texas race, marking only the second time he would vote for a Democrat.