LIVE | Ken Paxton Defeats Incumbent John Cornyn In Heated Texas Runoff! | Trump | N18G

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]this campaign ad shortly after Paxton's runoff win.

[00:00:04]>> The most corrupt politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate. For 50 years, mega donors and their puppet politicians like Ken Paxton have stolen from us with their bribes, their bailouts, and their billionaire tax breaks. Ken Paxton has gotten away with it. They've all gotten away with it. But that ends this year.

[00:00:32]>> Let's go live to Texas where Jeremy Wallace is standing by. He's the political writer at the Houston Chronicle joining us live from Houston.

[00:00:39]Jeremy, welcome back to the show.

[00:00:43]>> Oh, great to be on. I love being with you.

[00:00:45]>> Thank you. Um, so I mean this wasn't really even close. Are are you surprised at all by the margin how lopsided a victory it's been for Paxton? uh was just a guy who like his time had passed him. And so I don't know if like he was ever able to catch up with MAGA voters and say, "No, no, I really didn't mean that." You know, it's like I'm now a pure MAGA guy. But look, Ken Paxton was never going to let the voters forget that. And certainly at clearly from what you saw from, you know, Donald Trump and Paxton, he didn't forget either.

[00:01:23]>> Yeah. And one thing we know Donald Trump likes to do is give people nicknames.

[00:01:27]And it was interesting that Paxton has been trying out nicknames about Terico uh out there. Talk about what some of those are and what this general election matchup is looking like.

[00:01:43]>> Yeah, I think we're going to hear a lot of different nicknames. Uh look, they're already hitting him pretty hard on trying to make him sound like a vegan, which he may not be. Uh, in fact, we've seen him eat meat before, so I'm not sure kind of what's going to happen there, but they're going to throw everything they can at him. Uh, anything that sounds less Texan, right? You know, so, but expect one thing for sure. This is going to be an incredibly negative race when it comes down to it. You know, Paxton has a lot of baggage uh that Republicans are going to have to help him get to the finish line to make sure they hold this seat still. And that means they're going to have to go super negative on James Talerico, who's not fully defined yet to a lot of voters.

[00:02:26]And it's going to be a race now to see if the Republicans can define James Terico as something terrible, something that is anti-ex or will James Tarico have the money to make the case that Paxton is just too corrupt for Texas, even if you're a Republican.

[00:02:45]So, we know Democrats have not won statewide in Texas since 1994.

[00:02:52]Um, talk about the math challenges for the Democrats to get over the top. So much was made of Betto Oor and his chances against Ted Cruz. He ended up a few points short.

[00:03:03]>> Where are those extra two, three, 4% to actually win?

[00:03:09]>> Yeah. Okay. So, here's the thing though.

[00:03:11]A couple of key numbers to remember. Not too many. I don't want to do too much math this late at night. But look, you know, Betto Aor ended up losing to Ted Cruz by 219,000 votes, right? That's pretty close for Texas. We've added 2 million voters since that election. So, you can see and a lot of those voters have been added to, you know, what I like to call the blue spine, which is the urban areas along Interstate 35. Uh these are urban diverse areas that have been adding population and voters. So there's no doubt that we've added 2 million additional voters since that election. So there's a chance if the Democrats wanted to find an opening.

[00:03:51]There is the math there that says you might be able to pull this off, but they have to get a lot of things right. And most importantly, they need a candidate that can be aggressive like Betto Aor.

[00:04:03]People forget the lesson about Bettoor was he was kind of your untraditional politician. He was not restrained. He wasn't careful what he did. He just went on instinct. And what we've seen in past Senate campaigns that tried to mimic it, we've seen very cautious paint by number type candidates. You know, no offense to Colin Ol, but when he ran for the US Senate, he kind of did that against Ted Cruz. And you saw it didn't produce any of that energy that you really saw with Betto Aor. So Terarico, the lesson's there for him. He's got to be more, you know, aggressive in what he does and less careful and less worried about what all the consultants are telling him to do.

[00:04:42]>> Well, and it seems like they're really trying to paint him, frankly, as not very macho, right? I mean, they literally are calling him low tea tarico, talofico, calling him a vegan, which apparently is the worst thing you could call somebody in Texas. Um, and so, will he be a personification of strength or or weakness? and defining Taler Rico in the next few weeks will be a really interesting moment as well. Uh Jeremy, you're going to stick around with us in the next hour. We're also going to get into some of the congressional races that are happening in Texas, uh which are really interesting and not necessarily the way we thought it would be even a few months ago. Uh so, thank you for being with us for a big night for your state. Really appreciate it. Top story is the Texas elections where CNN can now project that state attorney general Ken Paxton will win the Republican runoff against incumbent Senator John Cornin. This was the most expensive Republican Senate primary in US history. Cornin actually got more votes than Paxton in the primary, but no candidate reached the 50% threshold. And then came the runoff.

[00:05:50]And then came President Trump's endorsement of Paxton just over a week ago.

[00:05:57]>> When everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and abandon the people of Texas, he didn't listen.

[00:06:03]>> Instead, he gave his complete and total endorsement.

[00:06:07]>> President Trump is a leader of our party and his endorsement in this most power is the most powerful force in politics.

[00:06:15]and I'm honored to have his support and I look forward to working with him in the Senate to deliver for Texas.

[00:06:23]>> Cornin has served four terms in the US Senate voting with President Trump more than 99% of the time according to his campaign.

[00:06:32]Yet Trump said he wasn't loyal enough.

[00:06:35]Cornin spoke with his supporters in Austin a few hours ago.

[00:06:39]I've spent most of my time in the Senate building the Republican party in Texas and in the in the US Senate and I've always supported the Republican ticket and I intend to do so again in this general election.

[00:06:56]>> Paxton will face Democratic State Representative James Taler Rico in the November midterms. Taler Rico posted this campaign ad shortly after Paxton's runoff win.

[00:07:07]The most corrupt politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate. For 50 years, mega donors and their puppet politicians like Ken Paxton have stolen from us with their bribes, their bailouts, and their billionaire tax breaks. Ken Paxton has gotten away with it. They've all gotten away with it. But that ends this year.

[00:07:35]Let's go live to Texas where Jeremy Wallace is standing by. He's the political writer at the Houston Chronicle joining us live from Houston.

[00:07:42]Jeremy, welcome back to the show.

[00:07:46]>> Oh, great to be on. I love being with you.

[00:07:48]>> Thank you. Um, so I mean this wasn't really even close. Are are you surprised at all by the margin how lopsided a victory it's been for Paxton? uh was just a guy who like his time had passed him. And so I don't know if like he was ever able to catch up with MAGA voters and say, "No, no, I really didn't mean that." You know, it's like I'm now a pure MAGA guy. But look, Ken Paxton was never going to let the voters forget that. And certainly at clearly from what you saw from, you know, Donald Trump and Paxton, he didn't forget either.

[00:08:26]>> Yeah. And one thing we know Donald Trump likes to do is give people nicknames.

[00:08:30]And it was interesting that Paxton has been trying out nicknames about Taller Rico uh out there. Talk about what some of those are and what this general election matchup is looking like.

[00:08:45]>> Yeah, I think we're going to hear a lot of different nicknames. Uh look, they're already hitting him pretty hard on trying to make him sound like a vegan, which he may not be. Uh, in fact, we've seen him eat meat before, so I'm not sure kind of what's gonna happen there, but they're going to throw everything they can at him. Uh, anything that sounds less Texan, right? You know, so, but expect one thing for sure. This is going to be an incredibly negative race when it comes down to it. You know, Paxton has a lot of baggage uh that Republicans are going to have to help him get to the finish line to make sure they hold this seat still. And that means they're going to have to go super negative on James Terico, who's not fully defined yet to a lot of voters.

[00:09:29]And it's going to be a race now to see if the Republicans can define James Terico as something terrible, something that is anti-exan or will James Terico have the money to make the case that Paxton is just too corrupt for Texas, even if you're a Republican.

[00:09:48]So, we know Democrats have not won statewide in Texas since 1994.

[00:09:55]Um, talk about the math challenges for the Democrats to get over the top. So much was made of Betto Oor and his chances against Ted Cruz. He ended up a few points short.

[00:10:06]>> Where are those extra two, three, 4% to actually win?

[00:10:12]>> Yeah. Okay. So, here's the thing though.

[00:10:14]A couple key numbers to remember. Not too many. I don't want to do too much math this late at night, but look, you know, Betto Aor ended up losing to Ted Cruz by 219,000 votes, right? That's pretty close for Texas. We've added 2 million voters since that election. So, you can see and a lot of those voters have been added to, you know, what I like to call the blue spine, which is the urban areas along Interstate 35. Uh these are urban diverse areas that have been adding population and voters. So there's no doubt that we've added two million additional voters since that election. So there's a chance if the Democrats wanted to find an opening, there is the math there that says you might be able to pull this off, but they have to get a lot of things right. And most importantly, they need a candidate that can be aggressive like Bettoor.

[00:11:06]People forget the lesson about Bettoor was he was kind of your untraditional politician. He was not restrained. He wasn't careful what he did. He just went on instinct. And what we've seen in past Senate campaigns that tried to mimic it, we've seen very cautious paint by number type candidates. You know, no offense to Colin Ol, but when he ran for the US Senate, he kind of did that against Ted Cruz. And you saw it didn't produce any of that energy that you really saw with Betto Aor. So Taler Rico, the lesson's there for him. He's got to be more, you know, aggressive in what he does and less careful and less worried about what all the consultants are telling him to do.

[00:11:45]>> Well, and it seems like they're really trying to paint him, frankly, as not very macho, right? I mean, they literally are calling him low tiofo, calling him a vegan, which apparently is the worst thing you could call somebody in Texas. Um, and so, will he be a personification of strength or or weakness? and defining Taller Rico in the next few weeks will be a really interesting moment as well. Uh Jeremy, you're going to stick around with us in the next hour. We're also going to get into some of the congressional races that are happening in Texas, uh which are really interesting and not necessarily the way we thought it would be even a few months ago. Uh so, thank you for being with us for a big night for your state. Really appreciate it.

[00:12:29]Top story is the Texas elections where CNN can now project that state attorney general Ken Paxton will win the Republican runoff against incumbent Senator John Cornin. This was the most expensive Republican Senate primary in US history. Cornin actually got more votes than Paxton in the primary, but no candidate reached the 50% threshold. And then came the runoff. And then came President Trump's endorsement of Paxton just over a week ago.

[00:13:00]>> When everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and abandon the people of Texas, he didn't listen.

[00:13:06]>> Instead, he gave his complete and total endorsement.

[00:13:10]President Trump is a leader of our party and his endorsement in this most power is the most powerful force in politics >> and I'm honored to have his support and I look forward to working with him in the Senate to deliver for Texas.

[00:13:25]Cornin has served four terms in the US Senate voting with President Trump more than 99% of the time according to his campaign.

[00:13:35]Yet Trump said he wasn't loyal enough.

[00:13:37]Cornin spoke with his supporters in Austin a few hours ago.

[00:13:42]>> I've spent most of my time in the Senate building the Republican party in Texas and in the in the US Senate and I've always supported the Republican ticket and I intend to do so again in this general election.

[00:13:59]>> Paxton will face Democratic State Representative James Talico in the November midterms. Terico posted this campaign ad shortly after Paxton's runoff win.

[00:14:10]The most corrupt politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate. For 50 years, mega donors and their puppet politicians like Ken Paxton have stolen from us with their bribes, their bailouts, and their billionaire tax breaks. Ken Paxton has gotten away with it. They've all gotten away with it, but that ends this year.

[00:14:37]>> Let's go live to Texas where Jeremy Wallace is standing by. He's the political writer at the Houston Chronicle joining us live from Houston.

[00:14:44]Jeremy, welcome back to the show.

[00:14:49]>> Oh, great to be on. I love being with you.

[00:14:51]>> Thank you. Um, so I mean, this wasn't really even close. Are you surprised at all by the margin how lopsided a victory it's been for Paxton?

[00:15:02]was just a guy who like his time had passed him. And so I don't know if like he was ever able to catch up with MAGA voters and say, "No, no, I really didn't mean that." You know, it's like I'm now a pure MAGA guy. But look, Ken Paxton was never going to let the voters forget that. And certainly at clearly from what you saw from, you know, Donald Trump and Paxton, he didn't forget either.

[00:15:29]>> Yeah. And one thing we know Donald Trump likes to do is give people nicknames.

[00:15:33]And it was interesting that Paxton has been trying out nicknames about Terico uh out there. Talk about what some of those are and what this general election matchup is looking like.

[00:15:48]>> Yeah, I think we're going to hear a lot of different nicknames. Uh look, they're already hitting him pretty hard on trying to make him sound like a vegan, which he may not be. Uh, in fact, we've seen him eat meat before, so I'm not sure kind of what's going to happen there, but they're going to throw everything they can at him. Uh, anything that sounds less Texan, right? You know, so, but expect one thing for sure. This is going to be an incredibly negative race when it comes down to it. You know, Paxton has a lot of baggage uh that Republicans are going to have to help him get to the finish line to make sure they hold this seat still. And that means they're going to have to go super negative on James Talerico, who's not fully defined yet to a lot of voters.

[00:16:32]And it's going to be a race now to see if the Republicans can define James Terico as something terrible, something that is anti-ex or will James Tarico have the money to make the case that Paxton is just too corrupt for Texas, even if you're a Republican.

[00:16:51]So, we know Democrats have not won statewide in Texas since 1994.

[00:16:58]Um, talk about the math challenges for the Democrats to get over the top. So much was made of Betto Oor and his chances against Ted Cruz. He ended up a few points short.

[00:17:09]>> Where are those extra 2, three, 4% to actually win?

[00:17:15]>> Yeah. Okay. So, here's the thing though.

[00:17:17]A couple of key numbers to remember. Not too many. I don't want to do too much math this late at night. But look, you know, Betto Aor ended up losing to Ted Cruz by 219,000 votes, right? That's pretty close for Texas. We've added 2 million voters since that election. So, you can see and a lot of those voters have been added to, you know, what I like to call the blue spine, which is the urban areas along Interstate 35. Uh these are urban diverse areas that have been adding population and voters. So there's no doubt that we've added two million additional voters since that election. So there's a chance if the Democrats wanted to find an opening.

[00:17:57]There is the math there that says you might be able to pull this off, but they have to get a lot of things right. And most importantly, they need a candidate that can be aggressive like Betto Aor.

[00:18:09]People forget the lesson about Bettoor was he was kind of your untraditional politician. He was not restrained. He wasn't careful what he did. He just went on instinct. And what we've seen in past Senate campaigns that tried to mimic it, we've seen very cautious paint by number type candidates. You know, no offense to Colin Ol, but when he ran for the US Senate, he kind of did that against Ted Cruz. And you saw it didn't produce any of that energy that you really saw with Betto Aor. So Terarico, the lesson's there for him. He's got to be more, you know, aggressive in what he does and less careful and less worried about what all the consultants are telling him to do.

[00:18:48]>> Well, and it seems like they're really trying to paint him, frankly, as not very macho. Uh, right. I mean, they literally are calling him low tea tarico, talofo, calling him a vegan, which apparently is the worst thing you could call somebody in Texas. Um, and so, will he be a personification of strength or or weakness? and defining Taler Rico in the next few weeks will be a really interesting moment as well. Uh Jeremy, you're going to stick around with us in the next hour. We're also going to get into some of the congressional races that are happening in Texas, uh which are really interesting and not necessarily the way we thought it would be even a few months ago. Uh so, thank you for being with us for a big night for your state. Really appreciate it. Top story is the Texas elections where CNN can now project that state attorney general Ken Paxton will win the Republican runoff against incumbent Senator John Cornin. This was the most expensive Republican Senate primary in US history. Cornin actually got more votes than Paxton in the primary, but no candidate reached the 50% threshold. And then came the runoff.

[00:19:56]And then came President Trump's endorsement of Paxton just over a week ago.

[00:20:03]>> When everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and abandon the people of Texas, he didn't listen.

[00:20:09]>> Instead, he gave his complete and total endorsement.

[00:20:13]President Trump is a leader of our party and his endorsement in this most power is the most powerful force in politics >> and I'm honored to have his support and I look forward to working with him in the Senate to deliver for Texas.

[00:20:28]Cornin has served four terms in the US Senate voting with President Trump more than 99% of the time according to his campaign.

[00:20:37]Yet Trump said he wasn't loyal enough.

[00:20:40]Cornin spoke with his supporters in Austin a few hours ago.

[00:20:45]>> I've spent most of my time in the Senate building the Republican party in Texas and in the in the US Senate and I've always supported the Republican ticket and I intend to do so again in this general election.

[00:21:02]>> Paxton will face Democratic State Representative James Talerico in the November midterms. Taller Rico posted this campaign ad shortly after Paxton's runoff win.

[00:21:13]The most corrupt politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate. For 50 years, mega donors and their puppet politicians like Ken Paxton have stolen from us with their bribes, their bailouts, and their billionaire tax breaks. Ken Paxton has gotten away with it. They've all gotten away with it, but that ends this year.

[00:21:40]>> Let's go live to Texas where Jeremy Wallace is standing by. He's the political writer at the Houston Chronicle joining us live from Houston.

[00:21:47]Jeremy, welcome back to the show.

[00:21:52]>> Oh, great to be on. I love being with you.

[00:21:54]>> Thank you. Um, so I mean, this wasn't really even close. Are you surprised at all by the margin how lopsided a victory it's been for Paxton?

[00:22:05]was just a guy who like his time had passed him. And so I don't know if like he was ever able to catch up with MAGA voters and say, "No, no, I really didn't mean that." You know, it's like I'm now a pure MAGA guy. But look, Ken Paxton was never going to let the voters forget that. And certainly at clearly from what you saw from, you know, Donald Trump and Paxton, he didn't forget either.

[00:22:32]>> Yeah. And one thing we know Donald Trump likes to do is give people nicknames.

[00:22:36]And it was interesting that Paxton has been trying out nicknames about Taller Rico uh out there. Talk about what some of those are and what this general election matchup is looking like.

[00:22:51]>> Yeah, I think we're going to hear a lot of different nicknames. Uh look, they're already hitting him pretty hard on trying to make him sound like a vegan, which he may not be. Uh, in fact, we've seen him eat meat before, so I'm not sure kind of what's gonna happen there, but they're going to throw everything they can at him. Uh, anything that sounds less Texan, right? You know, so, but expect one thing for sure. This is going to be an incredibly negative race when it comes down to it. You know, Paxton has a lot of baggage uh that Republicans are going to have to help him get to the finish line to make sure they hold this seat still. And that means they're going to have to go super negative on James Terico, who's not fully defined yet to a lot of voters.

[00:23:35]And it's going to be a race now to see if the Republicans can define James Terico as something terrible, something that is anti-exan, or will James Terico have the money to make the case that Paxton is just too corrupt for Texas, even if you're a Republican.

[00:23:54]So, we know Democrats have not won statewide in Texas since 1994.

[00:24:00]Um, talk about the math challenges for the Democrats to get over the top. So much was made of Betto Oor and his chances against Ted Cruz. He ended up a few points short.

[00:24:12]>> Where are those extra two, three, 4% to actually win?

[00:24:17]>> Yeah. Okay. So, here's the thing, though. A couple key numbers to remember. Not too many. I don't want to do too much math this late at night. But look, you know, Betto Oor ended up losing to Ted Cruz by 219,000 votes, right? That's pretty close for Texas.

[00:24:32]We've added 2 million voters since that election. So, you can see and a lot of those voters have been added to, you know, what I like to call the blue spine, which is the urban areas along Interstate 35. Uh these are urban diverse areas that have been adding population and voters. So there's no doubt that we've added two million additional voters since that election.

[00:24:55]So there's a chance if the Democrats wanted to find an opening. There is the math there that says you might be able to pull this off, but they have to get a lot of things right. And most importantly, they need a candidate that can be aggressive like Bettoor. People forget the lesson about Bettoor was he was kind of your untraditional politician. He was not restrained. He wasn't careful what he did. He just went on instinct. And what we've seen in past Senate campaigns that tried to mimic it, we've seen very cautious paint by number type candidates. You know, no offense to Colin Ol, but when he ran for the US Senate, he kind of did that against Ted Cruz. And you saw it didn't produce any of that energy that you really saw with Betto Aor. So Taler Rico, the lesson's there for him. He's got to be more, you know, aggressive in what he does and less careful and less worried about what all the consultants are telling him to do.

[00:25:51]>> Well, and it seems like they're really trying to paint him, frankly, as not very macho. Uh, right. I mean, they literally are calling him low tiofo, calling him a vegan, which apparently is the worst thing you could call somebody in Texas. Um, and so, will he be a personification of strength or or weakness? and defining Taller Rico in the next few weeks will be a really interesting moment as well. Uh Jeremy, you're going to stick around with us in the next hour. We're also going to get into some of the congressional races that are happening in Texas, uh which are really interesting and not necessarily the way we thought it would be even a few months ago. Uh so, thank you for being with us for a big night for your state. Really appreciate it.

[00:26:34]Top story is the Texas elections where CNN can now project that state attorney general Ken Paxton will win the Republican runoff against incumbent Senator John Cornin. This was the most expensive Republican Senate primary in US history. Cornin actually got more votes than Paxton in the primary, but no candidate reached the 50% threshold. And then came the runoff. And then came President Trump's endorsement of Paxton just over a week ago.

[00:27:06]>> When everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and abandon the people of Texas, he didn't listen.

[00:27:11]>> Instead, he gave his complete and total endorsement.

[00:27:16]President Trump is a leader of our party and his endorsement in this most power is the most powerful force in politics >> and I'm honored to have his support and I look forward to working with him in the Senate to deliver for Texas.

[00:27:31]Cornin has served four terms in the US Senate voting with President Trump more than 99% of the time according to his campaign.

[00:27:40]Yet Trump said he wasn't loyal enough.

[00:27:43]Cornin spoke with his supporters in Austin a few hours ago.

[00:27:48]>> I've spent most of my time in the Senate building the Republican party in Texas and in the in the US Senate and I've always supported the Republican ticket and I intend to do so again in this general election.

[00:28:05]>> Paxton will face Democratic State Representative James Talorico in the November midterms. Terrio posted this campaign ad shortly after Paxton's runoff win.

[00:28:16]The most corrupt politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate. For 50 years, mega donors and their puppet politicians like Ken Paxton have stolen from us with their bribes, their bailouts, and their billionaire tax breaks. Ken Paxton has gotten away with it. They've all gotten away with it, but that ends this year.

[00:28:43]>> Let's go live to Texas where Jeremy Wallace is standing by. He's the political writer at the Houston Chronicle joining us live from Houston.

[00:28:50]Jeremy, welcome back to the show.

[00:28:54]>> Oh, great to be on. I love being with you.

[00:28:57]>> Thank you. Um, so I mean this wasn't really even close. Are are you surprised at all by the margin how lopsided a victory it's been for Paxton?

[00:29:07]was just a guy who like his time had passed him. And so I don't know if like he was ever able to catch up with MAGA voters and say, "No, no, I really didn't mean that." You know, it's like I'm now a pure MAGA guy. But look, Ken Paxton was never going to let the voters forget that. And certainly at clearly from what you saw from, you know, Donald Trump and Paxton, he didn't forget either.

[00:29:34]>> Yeah. And one thing we know Donald Trump likes to do is give people nicknames.

[00:29:39]And it was interesting that Paxton has been trying out nicknames about Taller Rico uh out there. Talk about what some of those are and what this general election matchup is looking like.

[00:29:54]>> Yeah, I think we're going to hear a lot of different nicknames. Uh look, they're already hitting him pretty hard on trying to make him sound like a vegan, which he may not be. Uh, in fact, we've seen him eat meat before, so I'm not sure kind of what's going to happen there, but they're going to throw everything they can at him. Uh, anything that sounds less Texan, right? You know, so, but expect one thing for sure. This is going to be an incredibly negative race when it comes down to it. You know, Paxton has a lot of baggage uh that Republicans are going to have to help him get to the finish line to make sure they hold this seat still. And that means they're going to have to go super negative on James Torico, who's not fully defined yet to a lot of voters.

[00:30:38]And it's going to be a race now to see if the Republicans can define James Terico as something terrible, something that is anti-ex or will James Terico have the money to make the case that Paxton is just too corrupt for Texas, even if you're a Republican.

[00:30:57]So, we know Democrats have not won statewide in Texas since 1994.

[00:31:03]Um, talk about the math challenges for the Democrats to get over the top. So much was made of Betto Aor and his chances against Ted Cruz. He ended up a few points short.

[00:31:14]>> Where are those extra two, three, 4% to actually win?

[00:31:20]>> Yeah. Okay. So, here's the thing though.

[00:31:22]A couple of key numbers to remember. Not too many. I don't want to do too much math this late at night. But look, you know, Betto Aor ended up losing to Ted Cruz by 219,000 votes, right? That's pretty close for Texas. We've added 2 million voters since that election. So, you can see and a lot of those voters have been added to, you know, what I like to call the blue spine, which is the urban areas along Interstate 35. Uh these are urban diverse areas that have been adding population and voters. So there's no doubt that we've added two million additional voters since that election. So there's a chance if the Democrats wanted to find an opening.

[00:32:03]There is the math there that says you might be able to pull this off, but they have to get a lot of things right. And most importantly, they need a candidate that can be aggressive like Betto Aor.

[00:32:14]People forget the lesson about Bettoor was he was kind of your untraditional politician. He was not restrained. He wasn't careful what he did. He just went on instinct. And what we've seen in past Senate campaigns that tried to mimic it, we've seen very cautious paint by number type candidates. You know, no offense to Colin Ol, but when he ran for the US Senate, he kind of did that against Ted Cruz. And you saw it didn't produce any of that energy that you really saw with Betto Aor. So Terarico, the lesson's there for him. He's got to be more, you know, aggressive in what he does and less careful and less worried about what all the consultants are telling him to do.

[00:32:54]>> Well, and it seems like they're really trying to paint him, frankly, as not very macho. Uh, right. I mean, they literally are calling him low ti, calling him a vegan, which apparently is the worst thing you could call somebody in Texas. Um, and so, will he be a personification of strength or or weakness? and defining Taler Rico in the next few weeks will be a really interesting moment as well. Uh Jeremy, you're going to stick around with us in the next hour. We're also going to get into some of the congressional races that are happening in Texas, uh which are really interesting and not necessarily the way we thought it would be even a few months ago. Uh so, thank you for being with us for a big night for your state. Really appreciate it.

[00:33:37]Top story is the Texas elections where CNN can now project that state attorney general Ken Paxton will win the Republican runoff against incumbent Senator John Cornin. This was the most expensive Republican Senate primary in US history. Cornin actually got more votes than Paxton in the primary, but no candidate reached the 50% threshold. And then came the runoff. And then came President Trump's endorsement of Paxton just over a week ago.

[00:34:09]>> When everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and abandon the people of Texas, he didn't listen.

[00:34:14]>> Instead, he gave his complete and total endorsement.

[00:34:19]President Trump is a leader of our party and his endorsement in this most power is the most powerful force in politics >> and I'm honored to have his support and I look forward to working with him in the Senate to deliver for Texas.

[00:34:34]Cornin has served four terms in the US Senate voting with President Trump more than 99% of the time according to his campaign.

[00:34:43]Yet Trump said he wasn't loyal enough.

[00:34:46]Cornin spoke with his supporters in Austin a few hours ago.

[00:34:50]>> I've spent most of my time in the Senate building the Republican party in Texas and in the in the US Senate and I've always supported the Republican ticket and I intend to do so again in this general election.

[00:35:08]>> Paxton will face Democratic State Representative James Talerico in the November midterms. Terico posted this campaign ad shortly after Paxton's runoff win.

[00:35:18]The most corrupt politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate. For 50 years, mega donors and their puppet politicians like Ken Paxton have stolen from us with their bribes, their bailouts, and their billionaire tax breaks. Ken Paxton has gotten away with it. They've all gotten away with it, but that ends this year.

[00:35:46]>> Let's go live to Texas where Jeremy Wallace is standing by. He's the political writer at the Houston Chronicle joining us live from Houston.

[00:35:53]Jeremy, welcome back to the show.

[00:35:57]>> Oh, great to be on. I love being with you.

[00:36:00]>> Thank you. Um, so I mean, this wasn't really even close. Are you surprised at all by the margin how lopsided a victory it's been for Paxton?

[00:36:10]was just a guy who like his time had passed him. And so I don't know if like he was ever able to catch up with MAGA voters and say, "No, no, I really didn't mean that." You know, it's like I'm now a pure MAGA guy. But look, Ken Paxton was never going to let the voters forget that. And certainly at clearly from what you saw from, you know, Donald Trump and Paxton, he didn't forget either.

[00:36:37]>> Yeah. And one thing we know Donald Trump likes to do is give people nicknames.

[00:36:42]And it was interesting that Paxton has been trying out nicknames about Taller Rico uh out there. Talk about what some of those are and what this general election matchup is looking like.

[00:36:57]>> Yeah, I think we're going to hear a lot of different nicknames. Uh look, they're already hitting him pretty hard on trying to make him sound like a vegan, which he may not be. Uh, in fact, we've seen him eat meat before, so I'm not sure kind of what's gonna happen there, but they're going to throw everything they can at him. Uh, anything that sounds less Texan, right? You know, so, but expect one thing for sure. This is going to be an incredibly negative race when it comes down to it. You know, Paxton has a lot of baggage uh that Republicans are going to have to help him get to the finish line to make sure they hold this seat still. And that means they're going to have to go super negative on James Terico, who's not fully defined yet to a lot of voters.

[00:37:41]And it's going to be a race now to see if the Republicans can define James Terico as something terrible, something that is anti-exan or will James Terico have the money to make the case that Paxton is just too corrupt for Texas even if you're a Republican.

[00:37:59]So, we know Democrats have not won statewide in Texas since 1994.

[00:38:06]Um, talk about the math challenges for the Democrats to get over the top. So much was made of Betto Aor and his chances against Ted Cruz. He ended up a few points short.

[00:38:17]>> Where are those extra two, three, 4% to actually win?

[00:38:23]>> Yeah. Okay. So, here's the thing though.

[00:38:25]A couple key numbers to remember. Not too many. I don't want to do too much math this late at night. But look, you know, Betto Oor ended up losing to Ted Cruz by 219,000 votes, right? That's pretty close for Texas. We've added 2 million voters since that election. So, you can see and a lot of those voters have been added to, you know, what I like to call the blue spine, which is the urban areas along Interstate 35. Uh these are urban diverse areas that have been adding population and voters. So there's no doubt that we've added two million additional voters since that election. So there's a chance if the Democrats wanted to find an opening.

[00:39:05]There is the math there that says you might be able to pull this off, but they have to get a lot of things right. And most importantly, they need a candidate that can be aggressive like Betto Aor.

[00:39:17]People forget the lesson about Bettoor was he was kind of your untraditional politician. He was not restrained. He wasn't careful what he did. He just went on instinct. And what we've seen in past Senate campaigns that tried to mimic it, we've seen very cautious paint by number type candidates. You know, no offense to Colin Ol, but when he ran for the US Senate, he kind of did that against Ted Cruz. And you saw it didn't produce any of that energy that you really saw with Betto Aor. So Taler Rico, the lesson's there for him. He's got to be more, you know, aggressive in what he does and less careful and less worried about what all the consultants are telling him to do.

[00:39:56]>> Well, and it seems like they're really trying to paint him, frankly, as not very macho. Uh, right. I mean, they literally are calling him low tiofo, calling him a vegan, which apparently is the worst thing you could call somebody in Texas. Um, and so, will he be a personification of strength or or weakness? and defining Taller Rico in the next few weeks will be a really interesting moment as well. Uh Jeremy, you're going to stick around with us in the next hour. We're also going to get into some of the congressional races that are happening in Texas, uh which are really interesting and not necessarily the way we thought it would be even a few months ago. Uh so, thank you for being with us for a big night for your state. Really appreciate it.

[00:40:40]Top story is the Texas elections where CNN can now project that state attorney general Ken Paxton will win the Republican runoff against incumbent Senator John Cornin. This was the most expensive Republican Senate primary in US history. Cornin actually got more votes than Paxton in the primary, but no candidate reached the 50% threshold. And then came the runoff. And then came President Trump's endorsement of Paxton just over a week ago.

[00:41:11]>> When everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and abandon the people of Texas, he didn't listen.

[00:41:17]>> Instead, he gave his complete and total endorsement.

[00:41:22]President Trump is a leader of our party and his endorsement in this most power is the most powerful force in politics >> and I'm honored to have his support and I look forward to working with him in the Senate to deliver for Texas.

[00:41:37]Cornin has served four terms in the US Senate voting with President Trump more than 99% of the time according to his campaign.

[00:41:46]Yet Trump said he wasn't loyal enough.

[00:41:49]Cornin spoke with his supporters in Austin a few hours ago.

[00:41:53]>> I've spent most of my time in the Senate building the Republican party in Texas and in the in the US Senate and I've always supported the Republican ticket and I intend to do so again in this general election.

[00:42:10]>> Paxton will face Democratic State Representative James Talico in the November midterms. Terrio posted this campaign ad shortly after Paxton's runoff win.

[00:42:21]The most corrupt politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate. For 50 years, mega donors and their puppet politicians like Ken Paxton have stolen from us with their bribes, their bailouts, and their billionaire tax breaks. Ken Paxton has gotten away with it. They've all gotten away with it, but that ends this year.

[00:42:49]>> Let's go live to Texas where Jeremy Wallace is standing by. He's the political writer at the Houston Chronicle joining us live from Houston.

[00:42:56]Jeremy, welcome back to the show.

[00:43:00]>> Oh, great to be on. I love being with you.

[00:43:02]>> Thank you. Um, so I mean, this wasn't really even close. Are are you surprised at all by the margin how lopsided a victory it's been for Paxton?

[00:43:13]was just a guy who like his time had passed him. And so I don't know if like he was ever able to catch up with MAGA voters and say, "No, no, I really didn't mean that." You know, it's like I'm now a pure MAGA guy. But look, Ken Paxton was never going to let the voters forget that. And certainly at clearly from what you saw from, you know, Donald Trump and Paxton, he didn't forget either.

[00:43:40]>> Yeah. And one thing we know Donald Trump likes to do is give people nicknames.

[00:43:44]And it was interesting that Paxton has been trying out nicknames about Terico uh out there. Talk about what some of those are and what this general election matchup is looking like.

[00:44:00]>> Yeah, I think we're going to hear a lot of different nicknames. Uh look, they're already hitting him pretty hard on trying to make him sound like a vegan, which he may not be. Uh, in fact, we've seen him eat meat before, so I'm not sure kind of what's going to happen there, but they're going to throw everything they can at him. Uh, anything that sounds less Texan, right? You know, so, but expect one thing for sure. This is going to be an incredibly negative race when it comes down to it. You know, Paxton has a lot of baggage uh that Republicans are going to have to help him get to the finish line to make sure they hold this seat still. And that means they're going to have to go super negative on James Torico, who's not fully defined yet to a lot of voters.

[00:44:43]And it's going to be a race now to see if the Republicans can define James Terico as something terrible, something that is anti-exan or will James Tarico have the money to make the case that Paxton is just too corrupt for Texas even if you're a Republican.

[00:45:02]So, we know Democrats have not won statewide in Texas since 1994.

[00:45:09]Um, talk about the math challenges for the Democrats to get over the top. So much was made of Betto Oor and his chances against Ted Cruz. He ended up a few points short.

[00:45:20]>> Where are those extra two, three, 4% to actually win?

[00:45:26]>> Yeah. Okay. So, here's the thing though.

[00:45:28]A couple of key numbers to remember. Not too many. I don't want to do too much math this late at night. But look, you know, Betto Aor ended up losing to Ted Cruz by 219,000 votes, right? That's pretty close for Texas. We've added 2 million voters since that election. So, you can see and a lot of those voters have been added to, you know, what I like to call the blue spine, which is the urban areas along Interstate 35. Uh these are urban diverse areas that have been adding population and voters. So there's no doubt that we've added 2 million additional voters since that election. So there's a chance if the Democrats wanted to find an opening.

[00:46:08]There is the math there that says you might be able to pull this off, but they have to get a lot of things right. And most importantly, they need a candidate that can be aggressive like Betto Aor.

[00:46:20]People forget the lesson about Bettoor was he was kind of your untraditional politician. He was not restrained. He wasn't careful what he did. He just went on instinct. And what we've seen in past Senate campaigns that tried to mimic it, we've seen very cautious paint by number type candidates. You know, no offense to Colin Ol, but when he ran for the US Senate, he kind of did that against Ted Cruz. And you saw it didn't produce any of that energy that you really saw with Betto Aor. So Terarico, the lesson's there for him. He's got to be more, you know, aggressive in what he does and less careful and less worried about what all the consultants are telling him to do.

[00:46:59]>> Well, and it seems like they're really trying to paint him, frankly, as not very macho, right? I mean, they they literally are calling him low tea tarico.