Paxton is pushing back hard against sharp criticism from the man he defeated in the Republican primary for Texas’s open U.S. Senate seat.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appeared on Fox News Sunday to defend his campaigning pace after Sen. John Cornyn called him a weak and lazy candidate.
“John Cornyn doesn’t know my schedule. He doesn’t know how many hours I’m putting in every day, 18 hours a day,” Paxton told host Jacqui Heinrich on Fox News’s “The Sunday Briefing.”
Paxton beat Cornyn by more than 27 points in May’s Texas Senate GOP runoff, making the senior senator’s public criticism of his successor all the more striking.
Cornyn did not mince words when speaking to The Texas Tribune, offering a blunt and damaging assessment of the Republican nominee’s general election campaign.
“Paxton’s a poor campaigner,” Cornyn told The Texas Tribune. “He’s lazy and doesn’t raise money. And he basically is not offering a very compelling case for his election.”
Cornyn added, “He’s making this harder than it needs to be. But so be it — we are where we are,” signaling frustration while stopping short of withdrawing his general support for the ticket.
Paxton dismissed the characterization entirely, saying he stopped in “four or five different cities” on Saturday alone and has been “driving all over the state” to meet voters.
“It’s completely fabricated,” Paxton said, adding that he has been raising money and trying his “best to connect to as many voters as possible” in the closing stretch.
The attorney general also said he has reached out to “many” Cornyn donors immediately after the runoff concluded, arguing that Republican unity is essential to holding the seat.
“We are attracting Cornyn donors and Cornyn supporters, because I think they realize if we lose this race, we’re going to lose the U.S. Senate and we’re going to lose Texas,” Paxton told Heinrich.
Polling suggests Paxton’s challenges are real, with a Texas Public Opinion Research survey showing Democratic nominee James Talarico leading 47 to 40, with 11 percent of respondents still undecided.
Talarico’s lead of seven points fell outside the poll’s margin of error of 3.3 percentage points, underscoring how seriously Democrats are competing for what was long considered safe Republican territory.
The financial gap between the two candidates is striking and potentially decisive heading into the final months of the campaign season.
Talarico, a state representative from Austin who has served in the Texas House since 2018, raised $30 million during the second quarter of 2026, compared with Paxton’s $9 million.
From the start of the general election through August 20, Talarico’s campaign outspent Paxton’s campaign on advertising by more than 200 to 1, according to AdImpact.
Cornyn has confirmed he will support the Republican ticket but intends to focus his personal fundraising on GOP Senate candidates in Michigan, New Hampshire, and Alaska rather than Texas.
Paxton did set up a joint fundraising committee with the National Republican Senatorial Committee in June, after the group had criticized him during the primary, signaling at least some coordination with party infrastructure.
