Stomping with Sen. John Cornyn in Austin on Tuesday, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said the political group he chairs, called the Lone Star Freedom Project, will spend “whatever we need” to see Cornyn through his Republican primary, on top of the roughly $18 million it has spent on his behalf.
Cornyn, who is serving his fourth term in the U.S. Senate, is fighting to retain his seat against challenges from Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston, who are certain to head into the May runoff.
Outside groups, the Senate Republican leadership and Cornyn’s own fundraising committees have spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting the incumbent senator and attacking his GOP rivals. Texas’ Senate race became the second most expensive in the country on Tuesday, according to AdImpact, with $98.2 million in total ad spending. Some three-quarters of the cash on the GOP side has come from pro-Corney sources — and yet, recent public polls show Paxton leading the race.
Perry’s group has outspent all but one of Cornyn’s many outside supporters, dropping nearly $60 million into the race alongside the senator’s campaign, per AdImpact. The former governor made it clear that if Cornyn makes it past the March 3 election, the runoff will continue.
“We are committed to John, and we will spend whatever we need to spend to make him successful,” Perry said when asked if that level of funding and spending would continue.
Beginning a 10-stop statewide tour on the first day of early voting, Cornyn warned that Republicans would see “election day carnage” in November if he loses the Senate GOP nomination to Paxton.
“Republicans up and down the ticket will pay the price for an albatross like a corrupt attorney general hanging around their neck,” Cornyn said at a Tex-Mex restaurant with Perry and other supporters, where he further argued that Paxton’s nomination could jeopardize new red congressional seats. “We haven’t lost a statewide election in Texas since 1994, but we could this year if the wrong person is at the top of the ticket.”
The senior senator has argued throughout the campaign that he would keep liberals and swing voters in the GOP fold who would otherwise be turned off by Paxton’s moral baggage — a history that includes impeachment, impeachment and federal investigations that the attorney general has largely endured.
Paxton, meanwhile, is arguing in his campaign that Cornyn is a relic of the establishment GOP and ideologically out of step with President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. The third-term attorney general has long been reeling from a list of legal and ethical problems — including mortgage fraud allegations and impeachment by the GOP-controlled Texas House over bribery and abuse of office — from which he has appeared largely unscathed. More recently, Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce on “biblical grounds” after she accused him of cheating on her.
In a statement, Paxton adviser Nick Maddox said, “Character matters in this race, and that’s why the people of Texas overwhelmingly support Ken Paxton. They know he’s a conservative warrior who will always fight for us and our freedoms, even when the left tries to tear him down.”
Maddox added that Cornyn is “like every other career politician who talks tough during election season, but then does the exact opposite in D.C. and repeatedly betrays Texas by pushing gun control and amnesty.”
Trump declined to endorse the primary Monday, telling reporters, “They’ve endorsed me, they’re all good and you have to pick one. So we’ll see what happens, but I endorse all three.”
In response, Cornyn said Tuesday that he would be “proud” to have Trump’s endorsement.
“I appreciate his kind words, referring to me as a friend and calling me a good guy,” Cornyn said. “The president knows he can count on me to be there to support him and his agenda, and I appreciate that. But that will be up to him to make the call. I think he likes a good fight, and he’ll see one here in Texas.”
In his remarks, Perry praised Cornyn’s work on border security and other conservative causes during his four decades in public office. The two were joined by representatives of the National Border Patrol Council, which has endorsed Cornyn for re-election.
“The people of the state of Texas know John Cornyn,” Perry said. “They know that character counts. They know that this guy is going back to Washington, D.C., and delivering for them day in and day out. What you have is a vanity campaign on one side and a corrupt campaign on the other.”
In a statement, Hunt spokesman James Kirknides accused Perry of pushing talking points from Cornyn’s supporters to the Senate GOP leadership and noted how much Cornyn-formed groups have spent against Hunt.
“If Hunt’s candidacy wasn’t a threat, why not? [Perry] Spend your own money to attack Wesley?” Kyrkanides said. “On March 3, Texans are going to prove that they are tired of gutter politics and establishment games. They are ready for a new generation of leadership. “
Asked if he believes “character” still matters in Republican primary contests, Perry said, “We’re fixing to find out. If it’s OK to win with a corrupt candidate, that’s not the Republican Party I joined in 1989.”
The Senate primary is Perry’s latest foray into a smashmouth GOP race in his home state, where he campaigned for then-Texas House Speaker Ded Phelan in 2024 and helped the Beaumont Republican narrowly beat a hardline challenger backed by Paxton. Perry also published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal before Paxton’s impeachment trial in which he indicated that state senators should reject Paxton’s attempt to dismiss the case.
Paxton is also launching a get-out-the-vote tour during early voting, planning up to nine rallies across the state to “engage conservative voters, turn out early voters and build statewide momentum,” according to Lone Star Liberty PAC, a group that supports Paxton and is sponsoring the tour.
Texas Rep. James Talarico, who is seeking the Democratic Senate nomination, also launched a “Take Back Texas” tour across the state on Tuesday, featuring 12 rallies, in addition to stops at local restaurants and cultural landmarks, before March 3.
