Texas GOP Senate race looking more like a toss up, recent polling shows

AUSTIN, Texas - Recent polling shows the race for the GOP senate nomination has tightened up. John Cornyn, Ken Paxton, and Wesley Hunt seem to be in a toss-up with the battle extending into a possible May runoff. 

What they're saying:

Cornyn was in Houston for a Get Out The Vote rally and spent much of his time throwing political jabs at his main challenger, Ken Paxton.

"Taxpayers know they can't trust Ken Paxton. Because he's saddled them with a $6.6 million judgment in a whistleblower lawsuit. His own senior staff who he selected can't trust him because they had to go to the FBI and turn him in for interfering in a federal investigation of one of his campaign donors for which he got impeached, and sadly, not even his own family can trust Ken Paxton. So why in the world would he think that voters can trust him," said Cornyn. 

Ken Paxton continued his swing through East Texas Thursday. During a recent stop he spoke to FOX 4 Dallas's Steven Dial about the comments being made by Cornyn.

"I’m not surprised that John Cornyn is focused on personal things as opposed to what he has accomplished. Because you know what, he hasn’t accomplished anything," said Paxton.

Paxton and Cornyn have avoided talking about Wesley Hunt, the third candidate in the race. But with a recent poll indicating it’s now a tight race, several attack ads have dropped. 

FOX 7 Austin spoke to Hunt about the ads which focus on his personal and congressional voting record.

"Paxton and Cornyn, just a couple days ago, bought a million-dollar ad buy, a piece hitting me in Texas, which I believe is great because as an Apache helicopter pilot, it means I am right over the target zone when people start shooting at you," said Hunt.

Some of those ads noted how Hunt voted for  Hillary Clinton in the early 2000s. Hunt denied he is some kind of Democrat plant, saying he is a lifelong conservative. He explained the Clinton vote was part of a plan.

"In 2008, I voted for Hillary Clinton in Operation Chaos, like thousands of conservatives did. And the funny thing about Cornyn is now he's trying to conflate that and say that I voted against President Trump in 2016. That's the flat-out lie. I voted President Trump in 2016. I have the proof. I voted for him in 2020, because he endorsed me in 2020. We were actually both on the ballot in 2020 and in 2024, I was the first person in the country to endorse President Trump," said Hunt.

Hunt has spent much of his time focused on John Cornyn saying he is too old and should be retired. He has not thrown many hard punches at Kent Paxton. 

FOX 7 asked how he would campaign against Paxton if both of them were in the May runoff.

"Well, this is actually a very interesting, you know, an interesting point you bring up as I've been traveling around, a woman approached me and she said, you know, Wesley, I know Ken Pax is conservative. I know you're conservative as well. I like you both. But in a couple of years, Ken is going to qualify for Social Security. This is a six-year term. He's going to be in the 70s and we're having the exact same conversation all over again," said Hunt.

Big picture view:

Hunt was in east Texas Wednesday and held a rally in Austin Thursday evening. 

Cornyn is heading from Houston to south Texas for a rally Friday in Edinburgh. 

Paxton has spent the last several days in East Texas and on Friday, he has a stop in Richmond, near Houston.

The Democrats in the senate race are also putting in the miles. 

Jasmine Crockett spent Thursday near the Metroplex and is expected to travel to College Station Friday. 

James Talarico was in Houston and San Antonio Wednesday and he will be in El Paso on Saturday.