Takeaways from Ken Paxton's Texas runoff win over John Cornyn

Added: 2026-05-29

[00:00:00]Tuesday's runoff election in Texas saw another Republican incumbent lose his seat to a Trumpbacked nominee. Four-term senator John Cornin conceded the race to state attorney general Ken Paxton.

[00:00:10]Paxton's candidacy benefited from a lastminute endorsement from President Trump who last week called him a quote true MAGA warrior. But some of the Republican party worry Paxton's controversial past could hurt him in the general election. In 2023, Paxton was impeached by a Republican controlled state house for corruption and bribery.

[00:00:27]accused of abusing the power of his office to benefit a real estate developer. Although he was acquitted by the state senate, Paxton's Democratic opponent, James Talerico, is using Paxton's past as a campaign message.

[00:00:39]>> Ken Paxton is intentionally clipping my cringy comments to distract from his career of corruption. Ken Paxton has a criminal record. I have a legislative record. I've served for four terms in the Texas House of Representatives where I brought Democrats and independents together to actually make progress for people.

[00:01:01]>> Mandy shared that screen with joins us now. CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Ed O'Keefe is in Austin. So you spoke with Terico. It's his first network interview news interview since the runoff. Now that he knows his opponent, how is this going to shape the campaign?

[00:01:16]>> Well, Lindsay, this is going to be an expensive one. It's going to get pretty ugly. It got ugly right away. Paxton accusing Telerico of being radical for his views on things like transgender rights and Telerico turning around and saying that he's now running against the most corrupt politician in America, but makes the broader corruption argument that it extends to corporate America and its influence over our nation's politics. So, take a listen to some of our conversation this morning. The president calls you the maybe the worst Texas candidate he's ever seen. And Ken Paxton, your opponent, has taken to calling you Tofreco.

[00:01:50]>> Well, I think if Ken Paxton is worried about freaks, he should stop giving Epstein style sweetheart deals to pedophiles. You know, this is the guy who just released Adam Hoffman from jail and admitted child rapist after one of Kemp Paxton's wealthy lawyer friends got involved in the case. Ken Paxton even kept him off the sex offender registry.

[00:02:11]Adam Hoffman was supposed to serve 25 years to life, but instead he served less than a month. As of this week, he's now back on our streets because of Ken Paxton's corruption. Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in America and it is costing Texans. It's endangering our children and it must end this case of Adam Hoffman catching wind here in Texas. He had been charged with sexual abuse of a young child. There was a hung jury in the original case as jurors struggled with it. They tried to hold a second uh trial, but the child involved didn't want to testify, leading prosecutors to cut this uh plea deal, which included minimal jail time and no sex offender registration. And it's now leading to a broader debate over how to change laws in this state regarding child sex crimes or allegations of them.

[00:03:01]an example of the kind of allegation that Telerico is going to bring up on the trail to drive home the point that in his view and the view of many Democrats and Republicans in this state, Paxton's just too corrupt to serve in the US Senate. We should point out too, Lindsay, we have asked multiple times to speak with the attorney general Paxton and so far he's declined those requests.

[00:03:21]>> So despite not being able to talk to him, what do we know about how he's going to run his campaign?

[00:03:27]Well, he's going to lean on the president for help as he did in the runoff against Senator Cornin. The president today saying that he looks forward to campaigning for Paxton at some point in the coming months. We're also watching to see to what extent he ends up coordinating with national Republicans who like to at least help coordinate some things regarding Republican Senate campaigns. He was running against Washington uh in essence until the White House endorsement came.

[00:03:50]He will focus a lot on Terico's comments in the past during debates in the state legislature over transgender rights. He had uh suggested at different times that God is non-binary, that there are multiple genders uh because of the scientific uh evidence regarding chromosomes. We talked about that with Telerico in our extended interview which you can see at cbsnews.com or on YouTube. Uh, but those kinds of comments, those culture war issues that have worked for Republicans in the past in campaigns are at least the early highlights of how they're trying to take down Tel A.

[00:04:23]>> Okay. Ed key, thanks so much.