Republican Ken Paxton of Texas is intensifying his Senate bid against Cornyn

DALLAS (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will be in an unfamiliar position Monday night: chairing his first campaign rally since the Republican announced his run for the U.S. Senate 10 months ago.

Paxton’s scheduled appearance is part of his intensifying campaign to unseat four-term Republican Sen. John Cornyn and add a MAGA devotee to the Senate, an effort that sets up one of the most contentious GOP primaries this year.

Until Monday, Paxton had waged a less aggressive campaign, spending relatively little money and drawing attention primarily by pursuing conservative causes as state attorney general. But with early voting starting Tuesday for the March 3 primary, Paxton is scheduled to make stops across Texas this week. He also began airing ads linking himself to President Donald Trump as he takes on Cornyn and Rep. Wesley Hunt.

Despite being the target of millions of dollars in attack ads from Cornyn and his allies, and opposition from Senate Republican leaders who say Cornyn is the stronger candidate in the general election, Paxton is heading into the GOP primary looking like his party’s front-runner.

“I wish they would stop sending money from Washington, D.C.,” Paxton told “Fox News Sunday.” “They’re sending money from D.C., helping John Cornyn. It’s going to be a lot of money spent, and he’s going to end up losing.”

Paxton’s political survival appears to defy convention, as Trump did. Paxton won impeachment on fraud charges in 2023, and today he is clouded by allegations of infidelity made by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.

The three-term attorney general is betting that his defiance of his party’s leaders and aggressive litigation on conservative priorities will help him overcome moral and character questions that voters in the Republican-leaning state have forgiven him, at least for now.

Election campaigns intensify with the start of early voting

Paxton is scheduled to begin Monday a four-day series of rallies organized by Lone Star Liberty PAC, a super PAC that supports him, to remind people that early voting in Texas begins Tuesday.

His previous campaign stops have been low-profile events, including county GOP rallies with other candidates. He traveled to five Texas college campuses in the fall to speak with Turning Point USA chapters after the assassination of the national founder of the conservative Christian group, Charlie Kirk.

But until this week, that had been the case for Paxton’s public campaign efforts, except for a few podcasts with friendly hosts.

As of Friday, the only TV ad on behalf of Paxton in Texas was one that cost $674,000 to air, according to ad tracking service AdImpact.

That spot was attacked by Hunt, a two-term House member from the Houston area, not Cornyn. Like Paxton, Hunt is trying to appeal to primary voters looking for an alternative to Cornyn. By criticizing Hunt, Paxton’s allies are trying to turn some of his voters away from hoping to win 50% of the primary vote, the threshold needed to win the Republican nomination outright. If no candidate receives 50% of the votes, the top two finishers will qualify for a runoff on May 26.

Paxton’s campaign began airing an ad on Friday that includes videos of Trump praising Paxton and photos of them together. As of Monday, Trump had not endorsed any of the three Republicans in the race.

Paxton’s office promotes conservative goals

Paxton has relied on his Austin office to remain at the center of conservative efforts.

Last year, he sued doctors in Texas over allegations they violated the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, underscoring a key priority for social conservatives in their opposition to what they call gender ideology.

In October, just weeks after Trump repeatedly implored pregnant women to “Don’t take Tylenol,” Paxton filed a lawsuit against the companies that produce the painkiller, accusing them of deceptively marketing it specifically to pregnant women, asserting unsubstantiated claims that early exposure to its active ingredient increases the risk of autism.

Notably, Paxton led several legal challenges against the former Joe Biden administration over immigration and border policies, often successfully burnishing his credentials as a conservative crusader. Paxton, who was first elected attorney general in 2014, also sued Barack Obama’s administration regularly in the final two years of the two-term Democratic administration.

“I think Ken Paxton is a fighter,” said U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas. Paxton prosecuted more cases against then-President Joe Biden than any other U.S. attorney general, Niles said.

Cornyn, allies spend more than $50 million

A steady stream of lawsuits has kept Paxton in the headlines in Texas, where Cornyn and his allies have spent big money trying to tarnish his image among Republican primary voters.

As of Friday, Cornyn’s campaign and allied political action committees had spent more than $54 million on TV ads since last year, according to AdImpact. Much of it reminded voters of Paxton’s impeachment and his wife’s divorce on “biblical grounds,” citing extramarital affairs. These groups spent millions more on digital ads, text messages and direct mail, and also attacked Paxton.

In one ad, sponsored by Texans for a conservative majority, the narrator says at the beginning: “Ken Paxton isn’t just corrupt, he’s a freak.”

Republican strategists not affiliated with either campaign say the spending and months of warnings have not significantly hurt Paxton, who appears confident. No senator in the political history of Texas has served more than four terms. Paxton believes he is better known than any statewide elected Republican in Texas, including Cornyn.

Speaking on a December podcast hosted by Tony Buzbee, the attorney who represented the attorney general during his impeachment trial, Paxton said that “the only other people with name identification” in the state are Gov. Greg Abbott and Gov. Dan Patrick, who are seeking re-election, and Sen. Ted Cruz.

Republican leaders in the Senate are concerned

Republican Senate leaders in Washington have sounded the alarm about Paxton for months. They say that as the GOP nominee, Paxton will need hundreds of millions of dollars more for defense in the general election, in light of the expected attacks, than Cornyn will. They say this is money the party should not be spending in Texas, a state Trump carried by more than 13 percentage points.

Democrats must gain a total of four seats to overcome the Republican majority in the Senate in November. The minority party expresses renewed confidence in competing for Republican-controlled seats in Alaska, Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.

In Texas, US Representative Jasmine Crockett and State Representative James Tallarico are seeking the Democratic nomination. Paxton would do worse than Cornyn in the November election against either Democrat, strategists at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign group led by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, said in an early February memo obtained by The Associated Press.

“Cornyn wins the general election,” the memo said. “Paxton puts the seat in jeopardy.”

Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti contributed from Washington.