WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said he would make an endorsement on Tuesday in the Republican primary race for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, where hardliner Ken Paxton is challenging veteran U.S. Senator John Cornyn.
Cornyn, who has served in the Senate since 2003, faces scandal-scarred Paxton in a May 26 runoff after neither secured a majority in their three-way March primary election. Both candidates had tried to position themselves as closely to Trump as possible, but some Republican leaders had worried that Paxton could endanger a typically safe seat.
“I’ve pretty much always known who I was going to endorse, but I just thought this was a good time … the voting is starting, and I thought this was a good time,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump said he would make the announcement at 12:30 EDT/1630 GMT.
Paxton, a fierce ally of Trump, withstood more than $60 million spent against him in the race by allies of Cornyn, who was backed by Senate Republican leadership.
Political analysts say Paxton is the favorite to win in the November general election, but his victory is by no means assured given his history of scandals, including an FBI investigation that led to his 2023 impeachment. He was later acquitted.
Trump won Texas by nearly 14 percentage points in 2024 but had declined to endorse any candidate, a blow to Cornyn’s hopes of serving a fifth Senate term.
“I won Texas all six times, meaning primaries and the race, and I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, and I love Texas,” Trump said.
The victor of the runoff will face off against Democratic nominee James Talarico, a state lawmaker who has explicitly appealed to independents and moderates in a state long been dominated by Republicans.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk,Ismail Shakil, Doina Chiacu; Editing by David Ljunggren)
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