While the Democratic race is settled, the Republicans running for U.S. Senate are headed to a runoff on May 26th -- at least for now.
Four-term incumbent John Cornyn outperformed all the polls and finished ahead of Attorney General Ken Paxton in a very close race, 42% to 41%.
"Over the next 12 weeks, Texas Republican primary voters will hear more about my record delivering conservative victories in the U.S. Senate and learn more about Ken's indefensible personal behavior and failures in office," said Cornyn.
"Now, as we head into this runoff, we're going to make the choice even clearer. While John Cornyn was cutting deals on gun control and amnesty, I was suing corrupt Joe Biden over 107 times. 107 times," said Paxton.
Both Paxton and Cornyn had familiar campaign themes at their watch parties. Ad spending for the Senate primary in Texas broke a national record. According to Ad Impact Politics, it amounted to nearly $131 million dollars. Of that, just under $100 million dollars was spent on the Republican primary, including more than $71 million dollars supporting Cornyn and only more than $4 million for Paxton.
But there may not be a runoff in this race for long.
After refusing to make an endorsement in this race for months, the President posted on his Truth Social account Wednesday, "The Republican Primary Race for the United States Senate in the Great State of Texas.. Cannot, for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer. IT MUST STOP NOW! Both John and Ken ran great races, but not good enough. I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don't Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!"
Hours later, Paxton told Real America's Voices that he was staying in the race.
On Thursday morning, President Trump told Politico, "That's bad for him to say. That is bad for him. So, maybe, maybe that leads me to go to the other direction."
Then Paxton posted on X: "I would consider dropping out of this race if Senate leadership agrees to lift the filibuster and passes the SAVE America Act. John Cornyn is a coward who has refused to support abolishing the filibuster to pass this bill. No one has been more loyal to Donald Trump than me."
We asked the Chairman of the Texas Republican Party, Abraham George about the President potentially endorsing one candidate and asking the other to drop out.
"He's the President of the United States. He does have the right to make the endorsement, you know. It's up to the... I will have to say it is up to the people in Texas to make that choice who they're going to elect. You know, if he cuts a deal with one of the candidates, that's, you know, that's between him and the candidate; but if both of those candidates are going to be on the ballot, as far as I can tell, that's the plan now," said George.
"I mean...Texas is Trump country, and we love the president, you know; we elected him with a huge margin, 14 points in 2024, so he has a lot of say in these races. But, you know, it's not always the final word. You just saw Sid Miller was endorsed by the President, but Nate Sheets won. The grassroots will ultimately make the decision," said George.