US Senate candidates in Texas make final pitches to voters ahead of
Tuesday's primary
[March 02, 2026]
By THOMAS BEAUMONT and SEAN MURPHY
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A heated U.S. Senate race in Texas entered its final
stretch on Sunday with candidates on both sides of the aisle making
final pitches to voters ahead of Tuesday's primary, the nation’s first
big contest of the 2026 midterm elections.
Incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is trying to avoid being the
first Republican senator from Texas to lose a primary, fighting
challenges from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley
Hunt.
And yet, Cornyn's schedule was very light, as he spoke at a San Antonio
church with little notice, where he held private meetings and was
raising money, campaign aides said.
Democrats, hungry to win a Senate race for the first time since 1988,
see an opening, but have their own knotty race to figure out.
U.S Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the rhetorical brawler and regular antagonist
for President Donald Trump, is stressing her federal experience,
reminding voters that she has brought millions of dollars in federal
funding back to her district.
“So yes, I will clash with folk when it’s time to do so but I actually
govern as well," Crockett said during a church stop Sunday.
She also gave a nod to the Black women she described as the core of her
support, in Texas and nationally. Crockett, who would be the first Black
woman from Texas elected to the U.S. Senate if she wins office, is
backed by prominent Black women in politics including former Vice
President Kamala Harris, who endorsed her on Friday. Sens. Angela
Alsobrooks of Maryland and Ayanna Presley of Massachusetts campaigned
for her in the state this weekend.
State Rep. James Talarico, the soft-spoken seminarian who emphasizes his
crossover appeal, met with voters as he strolled San Antonio's Historic
Market District before headlining a rally downtown.
“Thousands of people showing up to rally with us. I can’t tell you how
many people are coming up to me and telling me they are not a Democrat,”
Talarico told The Associated Press. “I’m just so proud of the movement
we are building.”
In the downtown heat Sunday, hundreds stood in line along San Antonio's
Pearl Parkway awaiting entry to the event in the 132-year-old Stable
Hall.
But Cornyn's precarious stature as an incumbent vulnerable in his own
party's primary has been the focus of a majority of the massive sums
spent by both sides in the run up to March 3.
“Complacency is a killer,” Cornyn told voters Saturday at a seafood
restaurant in The Woodlands, a Houston suburb. “It kills relationships.
It kills careers.”
Senate Republican leaders in Washington, working to hold their thin
majority, have worried out loud for months that Democrats could have a
shot at a long out-of-reach Texas seat, if Republicans nominate Paxton,
who is popular with MAGA voters but has had years of legal problems.
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Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico speaks to
supporters at his campaign event at El Palacio Event Center in
Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (Mikala Compton/Austin
American-Statesman via AP)
Talarico, who has raised more money than Crockett, is part of the
Texas primary's record fundraising pace. His campaign has spent $13
million on television advertising just this year, the most of any
single entity in the crowded field of groups spending on either
side, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.
“That means we're building a true grassroots movement,” Talarico
told AP.
Heading into Tuesday’s primary elections, the cost of advertising
and reserved advertising time had topped $110 million, the most ever
for a Senate primary. Most of it — more than $67 million — had been
spent by Cornyn's campaign and allied groups, much of it attacking
Paxton, but also lately trying to keep Hunt from advancing.
If no candidate receives at least 50% of the vote on Tuesday, the
primary proceeds to a runoff between the top two vote recipients on
May 26.
A late visit to Texas on Friday by President Donald Trump, who used
the Port of Corpus Christi as a backdrop for a speech highlighting
energy production, drew all of the top Republican U.S. Senate
candidates. And while Trump said Friday he's “pretty much” decided
whom to endorse, he declined to name who he'll actually support.
“We have a great attorney general, Ken Paxton. Where’s Ken? Hi,
Ken,” Trump said. He continued, “And we have a great senator, John
Cornyn. Hi, John.”
Noting that they’re in a “little bit of a race,” Trump added: ’It’s
going to be an interesting one, right? They’re both great people.”
Despite his long career in Texas politics, Paxton has painted
himself as a Washington outsider and a staunch supporter of Trump.
“I'm not going up to Washington, D.C., to join the swamp club,”
Paxton said at a campaign event in Fort Worth. “I will go up there
and fight for you.”
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Murphy reported from Oklahoma City.
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