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Ken Paxton didn’t mince words at AmFest when he unloaded on Senator John Cornyn, calling out what every grassroots conservative already suspects: a career politician who talks like a Republican but votes like a Beltway moderate. Speaking on Sara Gonzales’ show live from Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, Paxton framed his challenge as a fight to return Texas’ Senate seat to true conservative leadership and to stop the GOP establishment from coasting on name recognition. The moment felt less like theater and more like a wake-up call to a party that has too often rewarded accommodation over conviction.
This is not idle rhetoric; Paxton has formally launched a primary challenge to Cornyn and is making his intentions clear to every county GOP chair and activist across the state. He’s staking his campaign on being the unapologetic, pro-Trump conservative Cornyn no longer is, and he’s banking on the idea that Texas voters are done sending watered-down Republicans to Washington. For conservatives who’ve watched Cornyn drift toward compromise on key issues, Paxton’s entrance is the opening of a long-overdue primary debate.
The charges Paxton levels are specific and resonate: Cornyn’s votes on the post-Uvalde bipartisan gun deal, his flirtations with bipartisanship, and perceived breaks with the Trump coalition have left him vulnerable to a rightward insurgency. It’s not just talk — Paxton and his allies point to a string of votes and public moments that, to many Texans, look like betrayal, not leadership. If Republicans want senators who fight, not negotiate away our freedoms, this is why Paxton’s case matters.
Paxton’s viability isn’t a fantasy conjured by cable hosts — recent polling and the cooling of his legal battles have cleared a political path for him to be competitive in a primary, and his approval among strong Republicans is notably high. The narrative that he’s a political dead man walking has been proven false time and again; instead, Paxton has cultivated real grassroots loyalty that the D.C. machines are desperate to ignore. If conservatives want results, they need candidates who have earned the trust of the base, not the blessing of lobbyists.
When Democrat Jasmine Crockett jumped into the race, Paxton didn’t waste the opportunity to remind everyone that true Texans vote their values — and that a Democrat theater act won’t save the left in this state. He bluntly told national outlets that Crockett is “running in the wrong state” if she thinks she can ignore the Trump coalition, and he contrasted that with Cornyn’s unease among the base. Whether you love him or loathe his style, Paxton is seizing the contrast: a conservative fighter versus an incumbent who has lost touch.
Patriots in Texas should see this primary for what it is: the choice between maintaining the status quo in Washington and sending a senator who will actually stand for border security, the Second Amendment, and national sovereignty. The stakes are huge for the country and for the future of the conservative movement — we can’t afford senators who pander to both sides and deliver to neither. If Republicans want a Senate that defends America’s values rather than apologizes for them, grassroots voters must show up and pick a fighter, not another establishment placeholder.
