Outgoing Rep. Dan Crenshaw can rest slightly easier tonight: His is no longer the most embarrassing incumbent Texan Republican loss of 2026.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton slaughtered incumbent John Cornyn in the Republican runoff. As of this writing, the Texas Tribune tracking page has Paxton garnering 64% of the vote against Cornyn’s 36%. That’s a crushing defeat for a four-term incumbent, especially one who went into the runoff with a slight lead over Paxton. But once in the runoff, Paxton constantly polled ahead of Cornyn, with Republicans dissatisfied with Cornyn’s defections on key conservative priorities over the years (especially on the issue of illegal alien amnesty), and President Trump endorsing Paxton over Cornyn was the final nail in his coffin. I mean, look at this freaking map:
That’s a curb-stomping.
State Senator Mayes Middleton scored a decisive win over U.S. Congressman Chip Roy in the Texas Attorney General’s race by around a 55-45% margin. I think Middleton ran the more effective direct mail campaign, establishing himself as the “MAGA” and cultural conservative candidate early on, and painting Chip Roy as weak on a variety of cultural issues early on. I didn’t see any actually see any flyers for Roy until the final week of the runoff, when it was way too late.
Thomas Smith beat Alison Fox decisively by about 58-42% for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 3.
Right now, Bo French is leading incumbent Jim Wright by about 26,000 votes with 94% of ballots in, so I think he’s going to hold on to win. That would mean I was 4 for 4 in my runoff picks. Behold, the power of my endorsements! (If they are powerful, it’s a pretty recent development, given my support for the Presidential campaigns of Jack Kemp, Phil Gramm and Rick Perry.)
In other results:
It’s late and thunderstorms are rolling through, and I’ve already briefly lost power a couple of times, so I’ll go ahead and press publish on this. But it was a very good night for Texas conservatives.
Possibly more tomorrow.
Tags: 18th Congressional District, 2026 Election, 2026 Texas Attorney General Race, 2026 Texas Senate Race, 33rd Congressional District, 35th Congressional District, 9th Congressional District, Alex Mealer, Bo French, Briscoe Cain, Chip Roy, Christian Menefee, Donald Trump, Elections, Endorsements, Jim Wright (Republican), John Cornyn, Johnny Garcia, Ken Paxton, Maureen Galindo, Mayes Middleton, runoff, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
I’m no longer a Texas resident, so staying in touch with Texas politics is not as easy, (Battleswarm helps a lot!) but the Middleton-Roy contest has me puzzled. Roy has pertinent experience galore for the job and Middleton doesn’t. Paxton has been a huge presence for truly conservative causes, and a lesser presence, even a nonentity, if Middleton is one, would be a big step back.
Is Middleton up to the task of filling Paxton’s shoes?
Middleton has the exact same job Paxton held (state senator) before being elected Attorney General, and he’s co-authored a lot of culture conservative bills.
“Is Middleton up to the task of filling Paxton’s shoes?”
No but can you name anyone who is?
I like that the only county that went Cornyn other than the county which contains the Peoples Revolutionary Republic of Austin, Kennedy County on the gulf coast, went for Cornyn by… four votes, with a final tally of 6 voters for Cornyn vs. 2 for Paxton.
There’s the result of your $100 million, Senator Thune.
For me, the reason to support Middleton was Chip Roy’s comments after the January 6th protest. (Notice, I said “protest” – not “Riot” and certainly not “Insurrection”.)
Roy said that Trump engaged in “clearly impeachable conduct.”
While Roy eventually voted against impeachment, this quote demonstrated that he was not the person to be Texas AG.
I wish him well in his future endeavors.
[…] politics-obsessed Travis County, where Cornyn won by just over 2,000 votes, and (as commenter FM noted) rural coastal Kenedy County, the third least populous county in the state with 350 people, […]