President Trump tore into Sen. John Cornyn and Karl Rove for making Ken Paxton’s Texas Senate race harder, and warned that their holdout could hand the seat to a radical Democrat.
In a Truth Social post Thursday, Trump accused the outgoing Texas senator and the longtime Republican operative of doing everything they can to block the GOP nominee. He cast both men as weak holdouts who have fought him for years and are now putting a key midterm seat at risk.
The Hill reported the post as early voting in Texas nears and public surveys show Democrat James Talarico holding a narrow edge. Decision Desk HQ, a nonpartisan forecaster partnered with the outlet, gives Talarico a 56 percent chance of winning.
Trump did not mince words about the stakes for the Lone Star State.
"John Cornyn, and his Liddle’ Buddy, Super RINO, Karl Rove, are doing everything possible to make it hard for Ken Paxton, the Greatest Attorney General in the History of Texas, and one of the Best in the United States, to win the upcoming Midterm Election against a Radical Left Lunatic,"
He framed the choice in plain terms for Texas voters heading into November.
"We cannot take a chance on having a FREAKO, sometimes referred to as James TalaFREAKO, as our man in Washington, D.C., representing the magnificent people of the Great State of Texas!"
Trump also called Talarico “the ANTITHESIS of Texas Values.” The message was clear: party unity behind Paxton is not optional if Republicans want to keep the seat.
Paxton, Texas’s attorney general, ousted Cornyn in a Republican primary runoff in May with Trump’s backing. Since that loss, Cornyn has spoken out against the Trump administration and has not campaigned alongside the nominee.
The senior senator has repeatedly voiced worries about Paxton’s candidacy and its effect on the broader Republican ticket, pointing to the attorney general’s scandals and campaign style. That distance is exactly what Trump hit on Thursday. In the same race, Paxton has pressed Talarico over long stretches off the trail, keeping the contrast in front of voters.
Trump went further on the cost of that resistance.
"If Ken Paxton loses, it will be because of WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Political Hacks like John Cornyn and Karl Rove, who have ineffectively opposed me for my entire political career,"
He tied Cornyn’s posture to a longer pattern of establishment pushback rather than a one-off dispute.
Trump also singled out Karl Rove, the former White House adviser to President George W. Bush, for backing a Democrat in one of Texas’s down-ballot races. He labeled Rove Cornyn’s ally and a “Super RINO,” folding the operative into the same charge of making Paxton’s path harder.
No response from Cornyn, Rove, Paxton, or Talarico to the Thursday post appeared in the initial reporting. The silence left Trump’s warning as the loudest public signal from the top of the party as the calendar tightens.
Early voting in Texas begins Monday. Most public polls have shown Talarico ahead, though only narrowly. That slim margin is why Trump framed Cornyn and Rove’s stance as more than personal pique, as a direct threat to holding the seat. Recent survey snapshots have also shown Paxton within a half-point in the same contest, underscoring how little room either side has to spare.
Republicans have grown increasingly nervous about losing the Texas Senate race. A seat long viewed as safe is now a midterm flash point, with a Democratic state representative leading in multiple surveys and a forecaster giving him better-than-even odds.
Trump’s post cast the fix as straightforward: stop undercutting the nominee who already beat the incumbent senator in a runoff. He presented Paxton as the proven attorney general Texas needs in Washington and Talarico as a gamble the state cannot afford. Trump and Paxton have also called out Talarico’s absences from the campaign trail, keeping pressure on the Democrat’s visibility.
The primary is over. Paxton is the nominee. Cornyn’s decision not to appear with him, and Rove’s down-ballot choice, now sit at the center of a public clash over whether the party closes ranks or keeps fighting the last war. Paxton has separately fretted about D.C. players moving into the race he thought he controlled, a reminder that outside operators and old feuds still shape the map.
Midterms punish divided parties. Trump put the blame for any loss on the men he says never accepted the primary result, and never stopped working against the candidate Texas Republicans already chose.
Voters in Texas will settle the seat. Party leaders who keep one foot out the door only make the Democrat’s job easier.
