Sen. John Cornyn is ‘not a Trump guy,’ AG Ken Paxton tells Grapevine Republicans
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Grapevine Republicans that his primary runoff opponent for U.S. Senate, incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, “is not a Trump guy,” as the question of whether the president will wade into the race remains up in the air.
Paxton was a speaker at a Thursday Grapevine Republican Club meeting ahead of the May 26 election. During the event, the attorney general told a crowd of a few dozen people that he rarely sees Cornyn while on the campaign trail and that the senator doesn’t go to GOP meetings to speak with voters.
“I saw him when President Trump came to Corpus,” Paxton said. “This whole pretend thing where he’s a Trump guy, which is all fake.”
Paxton posed a question to attendees: “What does he do?”
“He spends his time in D.C. — he pretty much lives in D.C.,” Paxton said.
Cornyn campaign senior adviser Matt Mackowiak said the senator has consistently voted with Trump and will have at least 25 campaign events over the next 30 days.
“Sen. Cornyn has voted with President Trump 99.3% of his time in office, has voted for every single one of his nominees and was responsible for passing his legislative agenda in the first term as the Senate Majority Whip,” Mackowiak said in a written statement. “Sen. Cornyn takes his responsibilities to fight for Texas in Washington seriously and has worked tirelessly to build the Republican Party in Texas over the course of the last several decades.”
Paxton spent much of the speech casting himself as the conservative, pro-Trump pick for U.S. Senate, outlining his experience in the Texas Legislature and as attorney general.
Paxton also discussed election integrity, calling it his “No. 1 issue” and advocated for the SAVE America Act. Paxton previously posted on X that he’d consider dropping out of the runoff if the Senate passed the legislation that would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote and photo ID when voting in federal elections.
The March 5 post came after Trump teased an endorsement in the race and said he expects the candidate he doesn’t endorse to drop out.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other senators have reportedly urged the president to endorse Cornyn.
Ahead of the March election, Trump praised Cornyn, Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt, who didn’t advance to a runoff.
Cornyn has endorsed Trump in both his presidential bids, but Paxton noted Thursday that Cornyn referred to Trump as an “albatross” for the party in 2016.
“We have a choice,” Paxton said to attendees in a conference room at Stacy Furniture and Design in Grapevine. “We can the country by changing Texas. We have another senator that’s more like Ted Cruz than Joe Biden. I don’t mean just physically, also. I mean actually political — although there is that.”
This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 9:33 PM.
