North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, has criticized President Donald Trump’s support of Ken Paxton over John Cornyn in the Texas Senate Republican primary a “colossal mistake.” During an interview on CNN’s State of the Union address. He argued that the president’s support for Paxton amounted to an “unforced error.”
“He made a colossal mistake,” Tillis said.
In the May primary, Paxton, who serves as the state’s attorney general, came out ahead over Cornyn, a four-term senator. That victory sets up a general election showdown between Paxton and Democratic candidate James Talarico on 3 November.
The Endorsement That Changed the Race
Trump endorsed Paxton just days before the primary. When he chose Paxton, he highlighted the attorney general’s support for the president’s Make America Great Again (Maga) movement.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Cornyn had said that Republicans should move on from Trump. Shortly before election day, Trump posted about it on social media, saying Cornyn had been “VERY disloyal” to him and asking Texas voters to “REMEMBER!”.
Paxton’s Scandal History
A string of political scandals has followed Paxton. He faced impeachment in 2023, charged with corruption, though he escaped conviction in a trial held in the Texas senate. Later, he was indicted for felony securities fraud, yet the case fell apart when a 2024 pretrial diversion agreement led to its dismissal.
In July 2025, Paxton’s wife of 38 years, Angela Paxton, filed for divorce “on biblical grounds,” citing adultery.
Tillis’s Pattern of Opposition
Tillis is among a small number of Republicans who have repeatedly broken with Trump and criticized his decisions publicly. In April, he defended the Nato military alliance after Trump said he was “absolutely” considering withdrawing the US from it.
“Any president that contemplates attempting to withdraw from Nato is not only fulfilling [Russian leader] Vladimir Putin and [Chinese premier] Xi Jinping’s greatest dreams but would be undermining America’s own national security interests,” Tillis said at the time.
Before her firing, Kristi Noem, then secretary of homeland security, was asked to step down by Senator Tillis after immigration agents killed two US citizens in Minneapolis in January. Tillis made the call for her resignation during the last Senate hearing before she was removed from office, describing her leadership as “a disaster”.
He voted in favor of a Democrat-led war powers resolution that aimed to end the US war with Iran, one of a small number of Republicans to do so. The proposal failed to pass in the Senate by a 49-50 vote.
What Comes Next
If Paxton loses, Talarico would become the first Democrat in more than 30 years to win statewide office in Texas. The race has wide implications for Trump’s strength heading into November’s midterm federal elections.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs neither Paxton nor Cornyn and takes no position on the primary race itself, but it is against any system that hands incumbents a moat through licensing and compliance costs that challengers cannot afford, and it supports narrow rules against direct harm rather than broad rules that hand the market to the biggest firms. The paper’s concern here is not with Paxton personally—his scandals and his wife’s divorce filing are not the point—but with the structure of a contest where the biggest firms ask to be regulated and wind up protected by the very rules designed to restrain them.
That dynamic is visible in the race itself: Paxton won the primary despite a record of legal trouble and personal drama, and the president’s endorsement may well have tipped the balance. The paper would prefer a system where a candidate’s past conduct—including misconduct—is weighed against their merits, without the incumbent being shielded by the cost of entry that comes with new rules.
What the reader should watch for is whether the outcome of this race, whatever it is, is allowed to shape the broader rules of the game in a way that favors the established over the challenger. The paper wants the playing field open, not rigged in favor of the party’s chosen candidate.
Key Facts
- Primary result: Paxton defeated Cornyn in the Texas Senate Republican primary
- General election date: 3 November
- War powers vote: Failed 49-50 in the Senate
- Noem firing: After immigration agents killed two US citizens in Minneapolis in January
- Paxton divorce filing: July 2025, citing adultery
Source material: “Republican says Trump’s support of Ken Paxton in Texas primary was ‘colossal mistake’,” The Guardian.
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