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Republican Sen. John Cornyn says that Rep. Jasmine Crockett's campaign launch in Texas' high-stakes 2026 Senate race is proof that "the Democratic Party has become the captive of the left wing."
Cornyn, the longtime senator from Texas who's facing arguably the toughest re-election of his political career, charged in a Fox News Digital interview that the bid by Crockett, a progressive champion and vocal critic and foil of President Donald Trump, shows that "even people like Chuck Schumer," the top Democrat in the Senate, "have been hijacked by the Bernie Sanders and AOC wing of the Democratic Party."
Crockett, a two-term lawmaker who represents a Dallas-area district, launched her bid earlier this month hours after former Rep. Colin Allred, a more moderate Democrat running a second straight time for the Senate in right-leaning Texas, ended his campaign.
Crockett will now face off in her party's March 3 primary with state Rep. James Talarico, a former middle school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian who is also seen as a rising Democrat. The general election showdown in Texas is one of a handful of midterm races that may determine if the GOP holds its Senate majority.
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Cornyn embraces Crockett's entry into the race.
"I think she is unelectable in a general election in Texas. Texas is still a conservative red state," Cornyn claimed. "She can't win, so I'm really happy she's decided to run."
While Crockett and Talarico face off for the Democratic nomination, Cornyn is battling Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a competitive and combustible Republican primary.
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And unlike the Democratic primary, where Crockett and Talarico are the only major candidates, the three-way Republican race may be headed towards a May runoff, which would be triggered if no candidate tops 50% in the March primary.
But Cornyn said that a GOP runoff won't "really change our chances of winning in November."
Cornyn is backed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in the GOP primary.
NRSC chair Sen. Tim Scott predicts Cornyn will be the GOP's nominee, emphasizing in a Fox News Digital interview last week that "we are confident that Texas will be red, ruby red, with John Cornyn as our candidate."
Paxton, who has been battered over the past decade by a slew of scandals and legal problems and who is now dealing with a messy divorce, is a longtime MAGA champion and ally of Trump, who remains neutral in the Senate GOP primary race.
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Cornyn, highlighting his Trump credentials, noted that "I get along well with the President. I've supported him during his first term, and now in his second term, I think the figure we came up with was 99.3% of the time. So I want the president to be successful and look forward to continuing to support him and his policies."
But he acknowledged that "I don't think he's [Trump] in a big hurry to endorse. He says that both the attorney general and I are friends of his, and I don't think he wants to disappoint some of his friends who support one or the other of us, if he...goes to support one and not the other."
The Republican primary in Texas has become explosive, with charges flying from all sides.
But Cornyn, remaining more diplomatic than incendiary, merely touted that he would be the most effective general election candidate. And he pointed to Paxton and Hunt and argued, "They're probably not going to be able to win, certainly by the same margin, and they might not be able to win at all because they're flawed candidates."
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"I've been through a lot of races before. This is nothing new for me, and we look forward to a good primary on March the third and probably a runoff that will finish the race off in May, and then we'll get ready for whoever the Democrats decide to nominate for November," he added.
Paxton campaign spokesman Nick Maddux, pushing back against Cornyn, told Fox News Digital, "Everyone knows that Jasmine Crockett, who said Hispanic Trump voters have a 'slave mentality,' is going to lose the general election miserably after winning the Democratic nomination. Cornyn's reciting this tired talking point about the general election because his sad campaign has nothing else to talk about it."
"Ken Paxton won his last statewide general election by nearly double digits, despite tens of millions in negative spending against him, and he'll do exactly that again in 2026," Maddux predicted.
Cornyn, who is running for a fifth six-year term representing Texas in the Senate, announced his re-election campaign in early March, with Paxton launching his primary challenge a month later.
Hunt, a West Point graduate who flew Apache helicopters during his Army service and a rising MAGA star who is in his second term representing a solidly Republican district in the Houston-area, jumped into the race in October.
As he declared his candidacy, Hunt showcased his own Trump credentials, saying, "I was the first person in the nation to endorse President Trump, and I have remained steadfast in my commitment to the people of Texas."
Hunt had been mulling a Senate run for months and sources confirmed to Fox News earlier this year that the congressman made his case to Trump's political team that he's the only person who could win both a GOP primary and a general election.
Asked about Hunt, Cornyn claimed that "he can't win the primary. He can force a runoff."
And Cornyn said Hunt was "pretty headstrong and is determined to run, which is his right... but he also has a right to lose, which is what's going to happen."
The 44-year-old Hunt, responding to the 73-year-old senator's comments, told Fox News Digital that "Cornyn continues to lose support and now stands as the most vulnerable and ineffective incumbent in the country."
"He refuses to step aside and pass the torch to a new generation of leadership, one aligned with the America First movement and committed to codifying President Trump's agenda, something Cornyn has spent years opposing in the United States Senate," Hunt charged.
