WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) – Republican incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton were headed to a runoff election after neither was projected to win more than 50% of the vote in the Republican primary, NBC reported.
Cornyn was leading the field in Texas’ three-way Senate primary, with U.S. Representative Wesley Hunt trailing in third place.
Cornyn and Paxton will now face each other in a May 26 runoff.
Allies of Cornyn, who is backed by Senate Republican leadership, spent more than $60 million to boost the incumbent over Paxton.
Primary Republican voters tend to be more conservative, which benefits Paxton, helping him to potentially defeat Cornyn in the runoff. Cornyn has argued, however, that Paxton’s history of scandals makes him vulnerable against a Democratic candidate in November and could cost Republicans a safe Senate seat.
Trump won Texas by nearly 14 percentage points in 2024 but declined to endorse any candidate. It’s unclear whether he will endorse someone before the runoff.
(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill, eidting by Ross Colvin and Deepa Babington)
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