A masked man with ammunition was arrested outside the hotel where Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was holding his election night watch party on Tuesday, the first major primary night of the 2026 midterms.
Paxton, who is running in the Republican primary for the Senate, was holding a watch party at a hotel in Dallas around 5:15 p.m. when police were notified of a suspicious person outside.
The suspicious man, described as “wearing camouflage and acting strange,” got into a vehicle without a license plate and drove away, according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.
Officers stopped the driver and arrested him for traffic violations. During their search of his vehicle, police recovered ammunition and took him to police headquarters for questioning.
A witness told the outlet he saw authorities pull several boxes of ammunition from his vehicle.
The witness said the man was wearing a black turtleneck, dark sweatpants, sunglasses, headphones, camouflage gloves, a hat and a gaiter-style face covering.
Despite the man’s suspicious appearance, investigators determined he was at the location to deliver to an employee.
Dallas Police told WFAA the man was taken to the Dallas County Jail without incident, but his name will not be released until he is booked.
Texas had some contentious primary races on Tuesday, including Paxton’s U.S. Senate race.
President Donald Trump has held off from backing Paxton, a MAGA ally, or four-term incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn.
However, Paxton’s strong performance in Tuesday’s GOP primary forced a runoff that will take place on May 26.
Meanwhile, Rep. Jasmine Crockett issued a statement Wednesday conceding the Democratic Senate nomination to James Talarico.
While Trump hasn’t made any endorsements, a GOP operative told Politico that Talarico is a “big reason for Trump to get in for Cornyn and end this thing.”
Talarico’s win “reaffirms the need to have Cornyn as the nominee,” they said. “Can’t risk this to Paxton.”
Another source told the outlet that it would be “very surprising” for Trump to now endorse Paxton, a more natural ally, after he failed to beat the incumbent.
Establishment Republicans fear that the scandal-marred Paxton, who was accused by his wife of adultery in divorce papers last year, could play into the hands of the clean-cut Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian and former teacher.
Cornyn has been unpopular with MAGA ever since he backed gun control legislation following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde in 2022 and after dismissing Trump’s prospects in a 2023 interview by suggesting “time has passed him by.”
Meanwhile, Paxton was impeached for corruption in 2023 by the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives, only to be acquitted in the Senate. He has also since separated from his wife, State Senator Angela Paxton, who is seeking a divorce “on Biblical grounds” over alleged infidelity.
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