Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a Senate campaign Tuesday night against fellow Republican Sen. John Cornyn.
Paxton appeared on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle and said he would jump in the race.
The Texas attorney general has been indicted several times, survived impeachment and was busted for carrying on an affair despite his wife being a fellow Republican politician.
Still he pushed that he needed a promotion.
‘I’m announcing that I’m running for U.S. Senate against John Cornyn who apparently is running again for his fifth term, which would put him there three decades,’ he told host Laura Ingraham. ‘It’s definitely time for a change in Texas.’
Paxton applauded the work in the Senate done by the other Texas Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz.
‘We have another great U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, and it’s time we have another great senator that will actually stand up and fight for Republican values, fight for the values of the people of Texas, and also support Trump – Donald Trump in the areas that he’s focused on in – in a very significant way, and that’s what I plan on doing,’ Paxton continued.
Paxton noted how Cornyn has ‘had 24 years of this.’
Cornyn has been serving in the Senate since 2002.
‘Which I think is plenty given his lack of production,’ he continued. ‘It’s hard to think of the things that he’s done good for Texas or for the country.’
‘I can certainly point to many things like his gun restrictions, his lack of wanting to fund a border wall and disagreeing with President Trump on that, and even opposing President Trump’s election in 2016 and the most recent election,’ Paxton said.
Cornyn was a lead Senate negotiator on the 2022 bipartisan gun bill, which was inspired after an elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
During the 2016 Republican primary, Cornyn stayed neutral in the presidential race even when it dwindled to just Trump, Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
In 2024, Cornyn endorsed Trump after he beat former U.N. Amb. Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire primary.
A campaign spokesperson for Cornyn blasted Paxton in a statement Tuesday night.
The spokesperson pointed out that Cornyn voted with President Donald Trump more than 95 percent of the time during Trump’s first term in office.
‘Ken Paxton is a fraud,’ the statement also said.
‘Ken claims to be a man of faith but uses fake Uber accounts to meet his girlfriend and deceive his family,’ it read.
The Cornyn campaign pledged a ‘spirited campaign’ and that Texans would have a ‘real choice when this race is over.’
‘Our campaign only responds to serious candidates who aren’t 25 points down in the polls,’ Paxton’s campaign responded.
Because Texas is such a deep red state, the Republican who wins the primary ends up winning the Senate seat.
The closest race in recent years came in 2018, when former Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke came within three points of taking out Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
This November, however, Cruz beat Democratic challenger Rep. Colin Allred by nearly nine points.