Texas runoff campaigns prepare for final push as early voting approaches

Who will win the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate?

The biggest fight to be determined involved the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate. FOX 7 Austin's Rudy Koski has a look at how the final push is expected to play out.

AUSTIN, Texas - The GOP primary for Senate is already considered the most expensive political battleground ever in Texas history. 

The backstory:

When the dust settles, it will probably go down as one of the most toxic. 

New attack ads from the Cornyn and Paxton camps have dropped in advance of Monday’s start to early voting. That media blitz is adding to the estimated $130 million spent as of earlier this month, according to some reports.

Soon, Senator John Cornyn and challenger Ken Paxton plan to hit the road.

Cornyn is kicking off a multi-city tour on Monday starting in Austin. And the group supporting Paxton, the Lone Star Liberty PAC, is also holding several "Get Out The Vote" rallies next week. 

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: New poll released for Texas U.S. Senate race

Two recent polls have the U.S. Senate race in Texas taking a complete 180-turn. However, political analysts are warning that these surveys are no guarantee that Texas Democrats are going to win their first statewide race in more than three decades. 

Political analyst Mark Jones, from Rice University, spoke about the final push, and a possible late wild card.

"I don't think there are that many persuadable left out there. Anyone who is open to being persuaded to vote for Cornyn or vote for Paxton has been persuaded. And now the goal of the campaigns is primarily to make sure that their supporters actually turn out to vote, either early or on election day. For John Cornynn, the more this electorate looks like the March electorate, the better off he'll be. Whereas for Ken Paxton, the more it looks like a traditional runoff electorate, the smaller and more conservative, the better off he'll be," said Jones.

The wild card in this race would be a late Trump endorsement.

"Without question, it could happen. We saw back in the March 3rd primary, Donald Trump endorsed Sid Miller for ag commissioner and Don Huffins for comptroller on the last day of early voting. So in theory, until the morning of May 26th, there's always the possibility that you could see a Donald Trump endorsement. And this race is so close and Donald Trump is so popular among Republican primary voters that a Trump endorsement could actually tip the balance in favor of one candidate or the other. Although more likely than not, if he's going to endorse anyone, it would be endorsing John Cornyn. I think what Ken Paxton and his supporters hope for is that the president simply remains neutral in this race," said Jones.

Dig deeper:

There are several other runoff battlegrounds across Texas that could make big headlines, especially for Democrats. 

In Houston, Congressman Al Green and Congressman Christian Menefee are in a battle for the newly formed 18th Congressional seat. Green has been in Congress for two decades and Menefee recently won a seat held by the later Sylvester Turner.

In Dallas, another redistricted Democratic battleground, is the nomination for the 33rd Congressional Seat between former Congressman Collin Allred and Congresswoman Julie Johnson. 

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Texas runoff elections are almost a month away

We are almost a month away from the start of early voting for the May runoff elections. That vote will finalize several big primary races and will kick off the push to the November general election.

Jones is also watching a fight in South Texas.

"I think Democrats are trying to avoid a potential disaster down in Congressional District 35, where one of the two nominees in the runoff, Maureen Galindo, has been shown to have pretty outrageous behavior related to anti-Semitism, as well as just making some bizarre statements and a penchant for conspiracy theories. If she ends up defeating Johnny Garcia, the party's preferred candidate, that could make it very difficult for Democrats to win in 35. And give Republicans a real boost in terms of flipping more Democratic-held seats. 35, of course, was one of the five seats that was targeted by Republicans back during the summer in their redistricting effort," said Jones.

What's next:

After the May 26 election day, and the votes are counted, there will not be a lot of time to let the primary dust settle. 

The Texas GOP is holding its convention the second week of June in Houston. 

Texas Democrats are having a late June gathering in Corpus Christi.