Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he wants to end his campaign on a \u201cpositive\u201d note. Sen. John Cornyn, however, is prepared to go down fighting.<\/p>\n
Paxton said Thursday he\u2019s pulling his negative ads against Cornyn in the final days ahead of their bruising GOP primary for Texas\u2019 Senate seat. The move reveals that the MAGA warrior, bolstered by President Donald Trump\u2019s endorsement, is confident in his ability to clinch the Republican nomination.<\/p>\n
But Cornyn, who\u2019s facing an uphill battle to keep his seat, responded that he will keep his own attacks coming, leaning into Paxton\u2019s long trail of personal and political scandals.<\/p>\n
In a race that\u2019s been defined by personal shots, the latest online dustup between the two underscores the difficult path forward for the Texas GOP after next week\u2019s runoff election. The Paxton-Cornyn matchup has deepened divisions between the MAGA and establishment wings of the GOP, and the fighting between the two camps has gotten so ugly that some Republicans are fearful it will dampen turnout in the midterms, hurt down-ticket Republicans \u2014 and possibly cost them the seat.<\/p>\n
Paxton\u2019s announcement came after Texas GOP Chair Abraham George, a fellow conservative hardliner, asked the candidates<\/a> to move beyond their feud out of consideration of the fight ahead to keep the seat red. The attorney general, who has gone after Cornyn for being too old to continue serving in Congress, wrote on X that his campaign has \u201calready changed our TV ad traffic starting today to ensure our campaign ends on a positive note and that we can focus on beating the leftist lunatic in the fall,\u201d referring to Democratic nominee James Talarico.<\/p>\n He called on Cornyn<\/a> \u201cto do the same for the good of our party. A Super PAC supporting Paxton, Lone Star Liberty, also announced Tuesday it was pulling its own negative ads.<\/p>\n Cornyn respondedin a post on X that<\/a> Paxton is \u201cdesperate to avoid accountability\u201d \u2014 and laid out exactly how bruising his ads will remain, saying the campaign needs a few more days to make sure voters know \u201cthat you plea bargained with a child sex offender, offering them only one day in prison and no sex offender registry as a favor\u201d to a donor. He was referring to a recent report<\/a> by the Texas Tribune on a plea deal Paxton offered to a man facing sexual abuse charges.<\/p>\n Cornyn and his allies have poured millions into brutal, personal ads trying to defeat Paxton \u2014 and they\u2019ve had a lot of material to work with. Paxton has faced an impeachment attempt by the state legislature, ethics complaints from his staff and a federal securities fraud investigation. He\u2019s currently going through a divorce that his wife filed for on \u201cbiblical grounds.\u201d<\/p>\n Republicans are increasingly concerned that a Paxton nomination would put the seat in jeopardy, given his significant personal and political baggage, and bracing to spend upwards of $100 million to bail him out in the general election. Cornyn finished narrowly ahead of Paxton in the March primary, but the Trump endorsement puts Paxton in a strong position to overcome that deficit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to continue to tell the truth about Paxton,\u201d Cornyn said<\/a> in another post. \u201cHe\u2019s escaped accountability for too long. Judgment day is coming.\u201d<\/p>\n