President Donald Trump is set to make a Texas-sized endorsement of one of the two frontrunners in the critical, razor-thin Texas Republican Senate runoff.
The endorsement will likely sway the all-important Texas primary to either Sen. John Cornyn or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Trump announced Thursday that his long-awaited endorsement in the May 26 runoff between incumbent Cornyn and firebrand conservative Paxton is coming soon.
That announcement came with a demand: whoever he doesn’t pick should immediately drop out.
“My Endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!”
That was 65 days ago. The endorsement is set to arrive any moment, Trump said this week.
Take a look –
BREAKING: President Trump says he'll be endorsing either Ken Paxton or John Cornyn SOON
"I'll make a decision… maybe relatively soon. I like them both."
It HAS to be @KenPaxtonTX.
Cornyn is a backstabbing RINO that will TURN ON YOU as soon as he gets through the primary,… pic.twitter.com/pRXULfSHCq
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 8, 2026
Early voting in the May 26 runoff begins this week, and the race is a statistical dead heat. A University of Houston survey released this week showed Paxton leading Cornyn, but within the margin of error.
The same poll showed that a Trump endorsement of either candidate would move the race by double digits.
The stakes could not be higher. Republicans haven’t lost a statewide race in Texas since 1994, but they are no longer taking November for granted. Democrats nominated state Rep. James Talarico, a 36-year-old progressive who has already raised a record $27 million and is statistically tied with both Cornyn and Paxton in early polling.
Establishment Republican leaders have spent months pushing Trump to back Cornyn. They argue the four-term incumbent gives the party its best shot at holding the seat. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said it was the responsible decision.
“If the president endorses early, it saves everybody a lot of money,” Thune said. “We need to hold that seat, which means we need to nominate somebody that’s going to win in November.”
Firebrand Paxton’s camp has fired back just as aggressively, and said Cornyn is a career RINO and said endorsing him was a betrayal of the MAGA base.
Trump himself once called Cornyn “weak, ineffective, and very bad for the Republican Party.” Prominent MAGA voices have openly warned Trump that endorsing Cornyn would be a “nail in the coffin” of his administration’s credibility with its own voters.
Paxton, who was impeached by the Texas House in 2023 on bribery and corruption charges before being acquitted by the state Senate, has pledged to stay in the race regardless of what Trump does.
The longer Trump waits, the messier the situation could get.
“It’s a mess,” one national Republican strategist asid. “A failure by multiple entities to do their part.”
With just three weeks to go, the most powerful endorsement in Republican politics is about to weigh in.
Trump’s final decision will have huge national implications.