Updated March 4, 2026 at 12:12 AM CST
The Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Texas is headed to a runoff, as no candidate was able to clear the more than 50% threshold needed to win, according to a race call by the Associated Press.
With more than 80% of results in, Sen. John Cornyn, the incumbent, secured 42.1% of the vote, according to the AP. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had 40.9% of the vote, while Congressman Wesley Hunt had 13.2%.
A runoff election will be held on Tuesday, May 26 between Cornyn and Paxton. The winner will take on either Rep. Jasmine Crockett or Texas state lawmaker James Talarico, who were both locked in a close contest on Tuesday with counting underway.
The Texas Senate race is one of the most closely watched contests on this year's election calendar, as Democrats sense an opportunity to claim their first statewide victory in Texas in more than three decades.
Both the GOP and Democratic primaries in Texas are a potential litmus test for what direction base voters want their parties to go ahead of midterm elections this fall that will determine power in Congress.
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On the GOP side, much of the primary saw Paxton, Cornyn and Hunt each presenting themselves as the most pro-Trump candidate.
Speaking to supporters after qualifying for the runoff, Cornyn said President Trump's agenda now "hangs in the balance."
"I refuse to allow a flawed, self-centered and shameless candidate like Ken Paxton risk everything we have worked so hard to build over these many years," he said. "There is simply too much at stake in this midterm election for our state and for our country."
Cornyn is seeking a fifth term in the Senate. If he were to be elected this November and serve out a full six years, he would become the longest-serving senator in the state's history, breaking the record set by Democrat Morris Sheppard.
"Cornyn's biggest weakness is his strength, which is his longevity," said Joshua Blank, research director of the Texas Politics Project of the University of Texas at Austin. "He is a creature of the institution. He comes from central casting for what a senator should look like, but ultimately, the party has gone through a number of revisions over the last, at least, decade and a half that in some ways make Cornyn's approach to politics a little bit anachronistic."
Over the course of the campaign, both Paxton and Hunt argued they were more aligned with the MAGA movement and the current state of the Republican Party, which has continued a rightward shift under Trump. Cornyn, who has held the seat since 2002, has voted in favor of the president consistently while in office.
While Cornyn has held the advantages of both incumbency and a sizable campaign war chest, most polls over the past 11 months showed Paxton either leading Cornyn or statistically tied with him.
Paxton, the state's often embattled attorney general, told a crowd of his supporters that the Texas contest is going to remain one of the most closely-watched races in the country. He accused Cornyn of collaborating too closely with Democrats while in office, including on gun control legislation.
"For too long he sold us out to Democrats," he said. "Those days are coming to an end."
Bill Miller, a political consultant who has advised both Republicans and Democrats, said that Paxton is the best positioned to win a second-round contest.
"The runoff will be the hardcore primary voters, and that's his base," Miller said, "so he'll be extraordinarily difficult to defeat in a runoff."
The Democratic primary
Results in the Democratic primary were slowed on Tuesday following confusion among voters in Dallas County, Crockett's home county. Hundreds of voters were reportedly turned away from the polls because they showed up to the wrong polling site. Dallas GOP officials decided to require voters cast their ballot at their precinct, as opposed to the countywide polling sites — which voters usually use during early voting. In response, a county judge ordered that the polls close two hours later, delaying results for an already tight race.
Crockett announced her Senate bid after Republicans in Texas redrew the state's congressional lines at Trump's urging last year. She was among a handful of Democrats who were essentially drawn out of their districts, which had previously favored Democrats.
There was a close eye on Crockett's next move because she had garnered significant attention during her time in Congress as a lawmaker willing to verbally spar with her Republican colleagues.
Her decision to run shook up a primary race that Talarico had already entered. Talarico was first elected to the Texas House in 2018 by flipping a seat that had been held by Republicans for years. Talarico, a seminarian, often invokes his faith — which he hopes reaches voters the Democratic party doesn't often speak to.
At first the race between the two was cordial, but as Election Day got closer — and more money and attention poured in — the contest between the two Democrats soured. That is even though the two candidates agree on most issues and policies.
Where they split is over whose strategy is best equipped to turn Texas blue. While Talarico has sought to frame his campaign as one that can win over moderates and disenchanted Republicans, Crockett is betting she can win by turbocharging turnout among Democrats.
The Texas primary has become the most expensive Senate primary contest in state history. As of mid-February, the tracking organization AdImpact Politics reported that spending in the Republican and Democratic races combined had reached close to $99 million, second in U.S. history only to the 2022 Arizona Senate primary. Cornyn ads alone accounted for nearly $59 million of that total.
Spending has only increased since then, with attack ads by both the candidates and super PACs supporting them proliferating.
The election could provide a glimpse as to whether Republicans are holding on to the gains they made with Latino voters, who are increasingly influential in Texas, during the 2024 election. Polling has shown that Latinos in the state, as well as nationwide, are beginning to back away from the Republican Party due to concerns over the economy and immigration enforcement.
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