Ken Paxton defeats John Cornyn in Texas Republican Senate primary runoff, setting up general election fight with Democrat James Talarico

Paxton's decisive victory in a low-turnout contest — roughly 1.4 million votes counted, compared to nearly 2.2 million in the March primary — concluded what NPR described as the most expensive Senate primary in U.S. history, with approximately $100 million to $128 million in advertising spent on the Republican side alone. Cornyn, who was backed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, won a smaller share of the runoff vote than he had in the March primary. After the race was called, Cornyn told reporters he intended to support the Republican ticket in November.

The NRSC, which had spent months attacking Paxton during the primary, moved quickly to erase that record after his victory. CNN's KFile found that the committee deleted at least two dozen press releases, digital ads, and social media posts that had described Paxton as "Crooked Ken," criticized his conduct in his divorce, and accused him of giving favorable treatment to an alleged child sex trafficker. Several video ads were also removed from the NRSC's YouTube channel. The NRSC declined to comment to CNN and did not name Paxton in its post-election statement, instead pivoting to attack Talarico.

The general election contest is drawing immediate national attention as a potential factor in Senate control. Democrats currently hold 47 seats and would need to flip four more — including Texas — to win the majority. Talarico raised $600,000 in the two hours after the race was called, according to the Washington Examiner, citing Politico. The New York Times reported that Talarico had raised approximately $40.2 million from September through the end of March, while Paxton fell well short of the $20 million fundraising goal he had set for the primary. Senator Ted Cruz, speaking on his podcast, warned fellow Republicans not to treat the seat as safe and drew parallels to his own 2018 race against Beto O'Rourke, when Cruz won by only 2.6 points after leading by 16 points in 2012.