John Cornyn spent 23 years in the United States Senate and acts like Texas’ seat belongs to him.
Now the man Trump chose to replace him is trailing a Democrat in Texas – and Cornyn is making it worse.
What the ousted senator just said about Ken Paxton in a published interview may be the most destructive thing a Republican has done to his own party this cycle.
Cornyn Attacks Ken Paxton in Published Interview
RINO Senator John Cornyn bashed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the GOP's Senate nominee, in an interview with the Texas Tribune.
Cornyn called Paxton a "lazy" and "poor campaigner" running a lackadaisical campaign that "doesn't raise money."
"He basically is not offering a very compelling case for his election," Cornyn said. "He's making this harder than it needs to be."
Then came the kill shot – Cornyn said Paxton's team has not done "diddly squat" to court his supporters.
Paxton's aides say they reached out to Cornyn multiple times and never got a response.
Texas Republicans Blast Cornyn for Sabotaging the Senate Race
One Texas lawmaker went directly at Cornyn's age – 74 – and his legacy.
He told The Washington Times that Cornyn should not exit a 23-year Senate career as a "bitter old man."
"It would be best if he could get behind Paxton and just find something about him to talk positively about," the lawmaker said. "But if you're not going to do that, then step back. You've already spent hundreds of millions of dollars to criticize him publicly. Stop."
That number is not an exaggeration.
Cornyn and his allies spent over a year and tens of millions of dollars running ads on bashing Paxton.
Texas Republican voters weighed all of it and overwhelmingly picked Paxton anyway.
Trump endorsed Paxton in the final week before the May runoff, and Paxton won with 63.8% of the vote – a landslide.
That loss still burns for Cornyn.
A Texas Republican insider put it this way: "John Cornyn is a good man who is establishment and out of touch with the GOP base. Ken Paxton is indisputably of questionable character on multiple fronts yet has a track record of being a conservative fighter."
Paxton Trails in Texas Senate Polls While Cornyn Fundraises Elsewhere
Cornyn has been cutting fundraising checks for Republican Senate candidates across the country.
Texas is not on the list.
The latest nonpartisan poll, released by Texas Public Opinion Research, shows Democrat James Talarico leading Paxton by 6 points among 1,000 likely voters.
Talarico has raised $72 million while Paxton has hauled in $16.8 million.
No Democrat has won a Texas Senate seat since 1988 – but Talarico is running with more than four times Paxton's war chest and the silent approval of the establishment Republican who should be helping close that gap.
Paxton went on Fox News' The Sunday Briefing and pushed back on the numbers.
"I don't trust these polls," Paxton said. "We have our own polling that suggests maybe a little different result, but we definitely have a close race."
He called his fundraising trajectory "tremendously good" over the past two weeks and confirmed he is launching ads.
"The reality is we are attracting Cornyn supporters because I think they realize if we lose this race, we are going to lose the U.S. Senate and we are going to lose Texas," Paxton said.
What a Democrat Winning Texas Would Mean for the Senate Majority
Republicans in Texas are not just worried about a single Senate seat.
They are watching Paxton's underperformance drag on downballot candidates across a state Trump won three times, including a blowout 13 point win in 2024.
One Republican activist called Cornyn's behavior a betrayal of the voters themselves.
"The voters are getting backhanded by a candidate who loses and then fails to support the candidate who was the winner," the activist said privately. "Nobody, nobody owns the office of Senator of Texas. It's the people's office. It's not Senator Cornyn's office."
That is the part Cornyn refuses to accept.
He told voters for a year that Paxton would be the easier candidate to beat in the general election.
Voters disagreed.
Now Cornyn is doing everything in his power to prove himself right – not by helping his party, but by watching from the sidelines as his prediction comes true.
John Cornyn is the one man positioned to make 2026 the year a Democrat wins Texas for the first time in 38 years – but because he cannot stand the idea that Ken Paxton could replace him in the Senate.
Sources:
- Susan Ferrechio, "Republicans call Cornyn 'lousy loser' for refusing to help Paxton's struggling Senate campaign," The Washington Times, August 31, 2026.
- Patrick Svitek, "Why John Cornyn won't be fundraising in Texas' U.S. Senate race," The Texas Tribune, August 28, 2026.
- "Ken Paxton defeats John Cornyn in Texas U.S. Senate GOP runoff," The Texas Tribune, May 27, 2026.