With Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s official announcement of his bid for John Cornyn’s Senate seat, the GOP is officially at a crossroads. Texas is already in the middle of a heated political battle within the state GOP, but this race will prove bigger than the boundaries of the Lone Star State. It will be a defining moment for the future of the national GOP after the end of Donald Trump’s second term.

Paxton has repeatedly attacked Cornyn for missing out on Texas's conservative leanings, while Cornyn has embraced a neo-con view. Texas has traditionally been viewed as a conservative stronghold, but the state’s internal turmoil demands an answer to the question, “What is conservatism?” 

Cornyn, a senator since 2002, confirmed his re-election bid in February 2025, per The Texas Tribune. At 73, he’s a mainstay of the pre-Trump GOP. His record shows a lack of understanding of the momentum within the GOP. In 2023, he distanced himself from Trump, telling reporters Trump’s “time has passed,” before endorsing him in January 2024 under pressure. Cornyn backed the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, expanding background checks after Uvalde—a move that angered Texas Republicans. His 2024 vote for $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, without border security, also showed him as out of step with current GOP voters. Cornyn has repeatedly voted for funding to Ukraine while not lobbying for more border protection.

Paxton, arguably the most conservative AG in the country, has not held back. On X in March 2025, he called Cornyn “delusional” and questioned his Trump loyalty after Cornyn’s campaign launch video leaned on the president’s name. As the Texas AG since 2015, Paxton shows a much more Trump-aligned vision for the party. His lawsuits against Biden’s immigration policies, 2020 election challenges, and border security fights have helped define national conversations throughout his tenure. 

Paxton officially announced his campaign with a bang, highlighting a 25-point polling difference between him and Cornyn among conservative voters. Paxton jabbed at Cornyn’s tenure, dubbing him “Senator Ukraine” in a March 2025 Punchbowl News interview for prioritizing foreign aid over Texas borders. Cornyn fired back in 2024 on X: “Hard to run from prison, Ken,” mocking Paxton’s legal woes, even though the AG has continually won every case the left and their proxies in the Texas GOP have leveraged against him.

But this isn’t just a Texas race; it’s a lens on the GOP’s internal tug-of-war. Cornyn’s faction, tied to the Bush-era party of tax cuts and bipartisan deals, clashes with Paxton’s focus on cultural fights and Trump’s legacy. Texas’s current GOP shows this tension on full display. 

The GOP-led statehouse, while red, often hands Dems power unnecessarily while rebuking the more conservative members of the GOP coalition. With Democrats in the minority, Texas allows them to control the topic of budgets, which bills make it to the floor, and refuses to rid the state of its DEI programs. AG Paxton has led the charge in bringing light to this corruption within the state and promises to bring that same fighting spirit to the US Senate.

As evident in his 2024 primary victories against impeachment foes, Paxton's sway points to a base hungry for America First conservatism. Cornyn, meanwhile, leans on his Senate clout and fundraising edge, bolstered by legacy DC megadonors.

With the Trump presidency already underway, the GOP will need direction once he is gone. Trump was given a decisive mandate from the people, and it will be up to the party to carry that legacy on after he is no longer in the Oval Office. 

This Senate race, set to take place in March 2026, will be a showdown between a culture—and family-oriented GOP and one that wants to return to pre-Trump standards. 

This primary outcome will ripple nationally. A Paxton win will help to lock in the new GOP’s victories under President Trump. A Cornyn victory could bolster the establishment’s case for a less combative approach and drag the party back to its uniparty tendencies.

As Texas and the national GOP look at the race, we will be forced to not only choose a candidate but also answer the question looming over our party: “What is conservatism?” The hope is that we can elect fighters like Ken Paxton who are willing to go to Washington and “fight, fight, fight” rather than “compromise, lose, and rubber stamp more aid to Ukraine.” The nation will indeed find out soon enough.