Bush and Cornyn leave out Paxton as they raise cash for Senate candidates

Former President George W. Bush and Sen. John Cornyn, two top Texas Republicans, are rallying conservative donors behind the party’s Senate candidates — except for the one running in their own state, Ken Paxton.

Cornyn hosted a fundraiser Monday evening in Dallas for six Republican nominees in battleground states, according to an invitation to the event that was obtained by the New York Times. Bush, listed on the invitation as a “special guest,” was attending the event, his spokesperson confirmed.

The event benefits Maintain the Majority, a new joint fundraising committee supporting the Senate candidates, who are defending Republican-held seats in Maine, Ohio, Alaska, and Iowa and looking to flip seats in Michigan and New Hampshire.

But Paxton, the Republican nominee in Texas, who defeated Cornyn in a costly and bitter primary, was not included. His campaign declined to comment on the fundraiser.

The fundraising omission of Paxton is another escalation in the standoff between old-guard Bush Republicans and the fiery insurgent wing represented by the party’s Senate nominee, Paxton, President Donald Trump, and their allies.

And it comes as the parties battle for cash and advertising time in the Texas Senate race, one of this year’s top contests. Paxton has badly trailed his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, in campaign fundraising, but super political action committees tied to Trump and Senate Republicans have come to Paxton’s aid, reserving more than $80 million in outside advertising in Texas.

Paxton, the state attorney general, has long been a polarizing figure among Texas Republicans. He was impeached by the Republican-dominated Texas House on corruption charges in 2023, though he was acquitted in the state Senate, and he pushed to oust Republican lawmakers and judges who disagreed with him in his party’s primaries in 2024.

This year, Cornyn and establishment Republican donors spent more than $130 million on advertising backing the senator and bashing Paxton in their contentious primary. (Bush chipped in $5,000 for Cornyn.) In the months since, Cornyn has continually criticized Paxton’s character and campaign.

“Paxton’s a poor campaigner,” Cornyn told the Texas Tribune in August. “He’s lazy and doesn’t raise money. And he basically is not offering a very compelling case for his election. He’s making this harder than it needs to be.” (Paxton countered the attacks, saying on Fox News’ The Sunday Briefing that “John Cornyn doesn’t know my schedule. He doesn’t know how many hours I’m putting in every day, 18 hours a day.” )

The fundraiser comes as long-simmering tensions between Bush- and Trump-era Texas factions burst to the surface.

Last week, Karl Rove, Bush’s former senior adviser, announced that he would not vote for Bo French, the Republican nominee for the Texas state agency that regulates oil and gas, because of a racist social media post by French. Paxton declined to condemn French’s post, and Trump posted on Truth Social that Rove was a “stone-cold loser.”

Paxton has attacked Rove in the past, including in an interview with conservative pundit Tucker Carlson in 2023.

Paxton has also gone head-to-head with a scion of the Bush dynasty, soundly defeating Bush’s nephew, George P. Bush, in the 2022 Republican primary for Texas attorney general. And Paxton has long criticized Cornyn for his willingness to work with Democrats on bipartisan legislation.

The host committee of the Monday fundraiser included paragons of the Bush-era Republican Party like Harriet Miers, Bush’s onetime nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court; former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison; and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow.

One of the candidates the event seeks to support is John E. Sununu, the Republican nominee for Senate in New Hampshire. His father, also named John Sununu, served as the White House chief of staff for Bush’s father, George H.W. Bush. Contributions ranging between $1,000 and $61,500 were required for entry, according to the invitation.

Some of the donors invited to the event on Monday have also contributed to Paxton’s campaign.

The gathering and the new fundraising committee will benefit Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Jon Husted of Ohio, and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, who are defending their seats in competitive general-election races, as well as three other Senate candidates: Sununu, Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa, and former Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan.

Two Republican Senate nominees in states that Trump won in 2024, Michael Whatley of North Carolina and Mike Collins of Georgia, are also not part of the fundraising effort. Democrats have shown strength in polls in those states.

Collins “appreciates the support of Sen. Cornyn and President Bush,” said Blake Kernen, a spokesperson for Collins’ campaign. Representatives for the other candidates did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.