The 2026 primary season kicks off on Tuesday with showdowns in Texas, North Carolina, and Arkansas, with contests that could ultimately decide whether Republicans can hold their House and Senate majorities in the .
Taking center stage this week: the combustible Democratic and Republican Senate primaries in right-leaning Texas.
Progressive firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a nationally known politician and vocal critic of President , is facing off against rising star Democratic state lawmaker James Talarico in the battle for the Democratic Senate nomination.
Either Crockett or Talarico will try to become the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate election in Texas, as the primary winner will face off against whoever comes out on top of a bruising three-way Republican primary among longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Rep. Wesley Hunt.
The and aligned super PACs have spent nearly $100 million to run ads attacking Paxton and Hunt, with the senator charging in the closing weeks of the primary campaign that Democrats will flip the seat in the general election if Paxton’s the GOP’s nominee.
Cornyn, his allies, and the , the campaign arm of the Senate GOP, have repeatedly pointed to the slew of scandals and legal problems that have battered Paxton over the past decade, as well as his ongoing messy divorce.
“If I’m the nominee, I’ll help President Trump by making sure that we carry the five new congressional seats as well as maintain this Senate seat and will help him continue his agenda through the last two years of his term of office,” Cornyn touted in a Fox News Digital interview.
And, he argued, “If the Democrats win, because we nominate a flawed candidate with incredible baggage like the attorney general, then that last two years of [Trump’s] agenda is jeopardized, as well as everybody down ballot that we need to continue to elect as Republicans.”
who grabbed significant national attention by filing lawsuits against the Obama and Biden administrations, pushed back, telling Fox News Digital on the eve of the primary that “I’m 3-0. I’ve won three statewide races.”
Pointing to public opinion polls suggesting he has the edge over Cornyn, Paxton argued, “it’s really easy for him to say that when he’s losing a primary, because he’s not delivered for the people of Texas, and he’s going to find out tomorrow what that means. He’s going to end up losing.”
“This idea that I can’t win a race is not true… there’s no evidence of what he’s saying is being true. As a matter of fact, the evidence is just the opposite,” Paxton added.
The GOP nomination battle was a two-person race until and military veteran who flew helicopters during his service and who represents a solidly red district in suburban Houston, announced his candidacy last autumn.
The final public opinion polls suggested Paxton with the edge over Cornyn, with Hunt in third place. If no candidate tops 50% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary, the top two finishers will face off in a late May runoff.
“I think there’s going to be a runoff, no matter what happens,” Cornyn said.
Paxton, speaking to supporters on primary eve, touted that “if we go to a runoff, the odds get better for me.”
Hunt, in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the primary, argued that he’s “the best candidate to win the primary and win the general, and I’m already outperforming both candidates, both Ken and John, in the general election against James Talarico or Jasmine Crockett. These are facts.”
And pointing to the negative ads from Cornyn and his allies that have targeted him the past couple of weeks, Hunt said “they have spent tens of millions of dollars against me in the state of Texas, which means that I must be doing the right thing, and I must be a threat. DC will not decide who will be the next senator from Texas. Texans will and that’s why I got in this rac
