WASHINGTON — Thirteen months, $135 million, hundreds of endorsements, numerous AI-generated ads and an uncountable number of ad hominem attacks later, the bruising primary battle between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton will finally come to an end Tuesday.
It’s a battle that nominally began last April, but whose contours were set long before — in 2023, when Cornyn cast doubt on President Donald Trump’s electability and Paxton faced an impeachment from members of his own party; in 2022, when Cornyn negotiated a bipartisan gun safety bill and Paxton was one of just two elected officials to show up at Trump’s presidential campaign launch; or perhaps in 2020, when the attorney general led the legal charge to overturn Trump’s presidential election loss.
