Paxton leads Cornyn in internal polling

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that new internal polls by both major parties show U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is in big trouble as he faces the toughest GOP primary opponent of his political career in 2026. A Republican poll obtained exclusively by the Houston Chronicle show Cornyn is down against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton among likely GOP primary voters by 17 percentage points. A Democratic poll shows him down more than 20 percentage points. The numbers have some Republicans worried that Cornyn is in a race he can’t win, and instead could force a primary fight that costs millions of dollars and ends up bruising the eventual GOP nominee ahead of the general election. And they come as other key Republicans are weighing whether to join the race. U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston, in particular, has emerged as a possible contender.

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said it’s time for someone to have a serious talk with Cornyn about whether he really wants to go through with another campaign that could quickly turn negative and costly. “If I was an incumbent senator with these types of polling numbers, I probably wouldn’t run because you can’t win,” Bettencourt said. Cornyn has said he’s not afraid of a primary against Paxton or anyone else. His campaign issued a similar statement Wednesday touting his easy primary victories over the decades and said he is “110% committed to running a vigorous reelection campaign.” So far, his campaign has heavily targeted Paxton, using social media to call the third-term Republican “a fraud” and alluding to Paxton having an affair that was confirmed during his impeachment trial in the Texas Senate. The new polling follows another survey earlier this spring, by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, a firm used by the Trump campaign, that found Paxton up more than 20 percentage points in a head-to-head battle with Cornyn. Paxton said during a recent radio interview just over a week ago on KSEV-AM 700 in Houston that he later commissioned other polls that showed entering the race with a big advantage over Cornyn with likely GOP primary voters.