Texas primary election results determine key races for US Senate and House seats

Primary elections Tuesday in the state of Texas ironed out which candidates will be battling it out for seats in both the US Senate and House of Representatives come the midterm elections in November.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican nomination for the US Senate, easily defeating four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn 63.9% to 36.1% in a race where US President Donald Trump backed a candidate with the intent of ousting an incumbent he saw as not being loyal to him and the Republican Party.

Trump endorsed Paxton last week, and his victory in Tuesday’s runoff makes Cornyn the first Republican senator from Texas to lose the party’s nomination for reelection.

Cornyn said in 2023 as Trump was running for his second term in the White House that Trump's time "has passed him by." He also was an early critic of Trump's plan to build a border wall between the US and Mexico, a project he now supports.

Despite the loss, Cornyn said he will support Paxton in the general election.

"Tonight we’ve come up short," Cornyn said. "I’ve always supported the Republican ticket, and I intend to do so again."

Paxton will run against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in November.

In the Republican runoff for the 9th Congressional District, Alex Mealer more than doubled the vote of her opponent, defeating Briscoe Cain 68.7% to 31.3%.

In the Texas 35th Congressional District Republican primary runoff, Carlos De La Cruz defeated state Rep. John Lujan 57.7% to 42.3%.

De La Cruz will face Democrat Johnny Garcia in the November midterms after Garcia won his runoff 60.5% to 39.5% against Maureen Galindo.

A unique situation took place on the Democratic side of the ballot for the US House District 18 seat, which pit two incumbent congressmen against each other after new redistricting maps merged much of their two districts together. Rep. Christian Dashaun Menefee handily beat Rep. Al Green 68.4% to 31.6%.

In the Democratic runoff for the US House District 33 seat, former US Rep. Colin Allred defeated incumbent US Rep. Julie Johnson 54.7% to 45.3%.

In the race to fill the office of Texas Attorney General, which is being vacated by Paxton, who is vying for the US Senate seat, state Sen. Mayes Middleton defeated US Rep. Chip Roy 55.4% to 44.6% to secure the Republican nomination.

Middleton will face state Sen. Nathan Johnson in the general election. Johnson defeated former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski 59.6% to 40.4% to secure the Democratic nomination for Attorney General.