(LifeSiteNews) — Trump-endorsed candidate Ken Paxton roundly defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in Tuesday’s Republican primary runoff.  

The Texas GOP senatorial race was seen as an important battleground between the Republican establishment and Trump’s MAGA-led forces within the GOP. By 9 p.m., the Associated Press (AP) called the race in Paxton’s favor, with Paxton garnering 63.8 percent of the GOP vote to Cornyn’s 36.2 percent.

Paxton’s win was especially stunning because his campaign was outspent nearly 10 to 1. 

Cornyn’s defeat is attributed in large part to his defiant resistance to passing the Trump-backed “Save America Act,” which seeks to rid fraud from U.S. elections. 

“24-year incumbent Senator John Cornyn has been DEFEATED in a complete blowout!” declared conservative campaign influencer and election integrity activist Scott Presler.

“This is a political earthquake that will shape the Senate for years to come,” said Presler.  

“Pass the SAVE America Act!” he urged.

Paxton is also known for his pro-life, pro-family record. As attorney general of Texas, he has strongly defended the state’s pro-life laws, prosecuted illegal abortion networks, targeted underage “gender transition” centers, and opposed homosexual “marriage,” among other things.

Paxton’s landslide win over Cornyn adds to the remarkable history of wins for Trump-endorsed candidates during the 2026 primary season.

Fox News’ Bill Hemmer used a graphic to show that every primary candidate supported by the president has won in all nine U.S. Senate races, 101 U.S. House races, and eight state governor races, with zero losses.

Texas Democrats have chosen ‘a weird candidate’

Meanwhile, in March, Texas Democrats chose abortion and “trans kid”-promoting James Talarico as their candidate. The 37-year-old leftist believes there are “six sexes,” defended transgenderism in blasphemous comments, and invoked the Gospel account of the Annunciation to defend abortion. He also fully supports open borders, suggesting that Texas should be considered “America’s front porch.” 

President Trump has called him “a weird candidate.’

“We really believe that there are multiple points of weakness when you start looking at a candidate like James Talarico, and we’re going to prosecute that case,” Gregg Keller, spokesman for the pro-Paxton Lone Star Liberty PAC, told USA TODAY.

“This guy has a history of showing he is completely out of step with where mainstream Texans are and, frankly, completely out of step with where mainstream Americans are in general.”

Lawmakers slam Talarico: ‘If Beelzebub were a politician, he would talk like this’

Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian and member of the Texas House of Representatives, ran as a “moderate” Christian Democrat in the Democrat primary in order to defeat U.S. House Rep. Jasmine Crockett, but his record betrays that image at every turn. 

“Do not let his choir boy persona fool you,” warned Texas House colleague Brian Harrison during a NewsMax video interview. 

“James Talarico is more liberal than socialist Bernie Sanders, he is weirder than Tim Walz,” said Harrison, and “he is even more radical than the left-wing lunatic he defeated, Jasmine Crockett.”

“If Beelzebub were a politician, he would talk like this,” noted U.S. House Rep. Brandon Gill (R–Texas).

If Beelzebub were a politician, he would talk like this https://t.co/5TgSVSvpuU

— Brandon Gill (@realBrandonGill) March 6, 2026

Many attribute Talarico’s rise to prominence to a long-form video interview with podcaster Joe Rogan published last summer. 

During the 2.5-hour podcast, Rogan fawned over the woke Democrat. 

Rogan reportedly invited Talarico to be a guest on his show after seeing his viral social media video posts explaining his opposition to displaying the Ten Commandments in Texas public schools. 

During his discussion with Rogan, the lawmaker, who is regarded by fellow Democrats as a “devout Christian,” condemned what he called the “religious right.”  

“For the last 40-50 years, the religious right has made a concerted effort to make homosexuality and abortion the two biggest issues for Christians,” Talarico said. 

Then he made a shocking, blatantly false statement: “This idea that to be a Christian means you have to be anti-gay and anti-abortion, there really is no historical, theological, biblical basis for that opinion.” 

He also astonishingly invoked the Gospel account of the Annunciation – which highlights the preborn humanity of Jesus – to defend abortion and claimed that a woman’s unwillingness to carry a child can legitimize the murder of the baby.  

Back in 2021, Talarico asserted in a Texas Statehouse Public Education Committee hearing that sex is not binary while arguing that gender-confused male students should be able to compete in girls’ sports in the Lone Star State.

He stated that “modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes.” 

“In fact, there are six,” Talarico added. 

By the end of their conversation, the enamored Rogan suggested that Talarico would make a great presidential nominee for the Democratic Party in 2028. 

“James Talarico’s woke Billy Graham shtick has the same function as Tim Walz’s trans-affirming Elmer Fudd persona,” wrote conservative commentator Matthew Schmitz on X. “Democrats desperately want a rural/religious-coded white male who can make their most unpopular positions seem American as apple pie.”

James Talarico’s woke Billy Graham shtick has the same function as Tim Walz’s trans-affirming Elmer Fudd persona. Democrats desperately want a rural/religious-coded white male who can make their most unpopular positions seem American as apple pie.https://t.co/KSRbuNEeP1 pic.twitter.com/rpshvWZImx

— Matthew Schmitz (@matthewschmitz) March 4, 2026

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