Incumbent Sen. John Cornyn has lost his runoff election against Texas AG Ken Paxton.
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What’s next:
Paxton will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in the Nov. 3 general election.
Both candidates were found to be trailing hypothetical head-to-heads against Democratic nominee James Talarico last month and voters were split then on who was the better challenger for the Austin Democrat.
November will still be a challenge for Democrats. No Democrat has won a statewide election in Texas since 1994.
Texas race for US Senate
The backstory:
Paxton and Cornyn spent much of the runoff cycle attacking each other on social media and in ads. Before the runoff, spending across both the Democratic and Republican primaries had made it the most expensive U.S. Senate primary race in history.
That spending continued during the lead up to the runoff, with ad spending breaking $16 million for Cornyn for the runoff and $3.7 million for Paxton, according to a May 13 post from AdImpact.
Last week, President Donald Trump broke a long run of silence on the race, finally endorsing Paxton over Cornyn. Texas GOP Chair Abraham George quickly called for negative ads to cease, to which Cornyn remained steadfast in his wish to “continue to tell the truth.”
Cornyn has held the seat since 2002, at one point serving as the Republican minority whip. Paxton has served as AG since 2015, facing numerous controversies along the way.
The Source: Information in this article comes from the Associated Press and previous FOX Local reporting.
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