Paxton Smokes Cornyn 50-28 Percent in Latest 2026 GOP Primary Poll

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is leading Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) by double digits in the latest poll of the 2026 Senate GOP primary.

Paxton garnered 50 percent of the vote compared to Cornyn’s 28 percent in an UpOne Insights survey of Republican voters, which was first reported in Punchbowl News.

In another tough result for Cornyn, only 27 percent of those polled wanted to see him reelected while 54 percent indicated they wanted someone new. Cornyn, who has been in office since 2002, has a lifetime conservative scorecard of 64 percent, according to Heritage Action.

The Texas Senator fares even worse in Conservative Review’s Liberty Score, which gives him a failing grade of 54 percent.

UpOne Insights pollster Robert Blizzard conducted the poll of 600 Republican primary voters on May 27-28 on behalf of the Educational Freedom Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for school choice programs.

A recent survey by the Senate Leadership Fund,  a GOP leadership-aligned super PAC, also found the Cornyn trailing Paxton by double digits. While the Senate Leadership Fund backs Cornyn, its poll “found the incumbent down 16 points in a survey conducted from April 27 to May 1,” Punchbowl News reported.

Paxton also had a higher favorability rating of 65 percent versus Cornyn’s 48 percent.

In a recent interview, the Texas Senator attributed his poor showing in the polls to a “primarily name identification” issue, but as Punchbowl News notes, only 7 percent of Texas GOP voters hadn’t heard of Cornyn, per the UpOne Insights poll, while 5 percent had not heard of Paxton.