The heated Senate Republican primary in Texas will continue for several more weeks, with Jattvibe News projecting that Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton will advance to a runoff. Paxton and Cornyn will face off on May 26 in a race that has already drawn nearly $100 million in advertising, largely from Cornyn and his allies. GOP Rep. Wesley Hunt’s entrance into the race meant that none of the three major candidates were able to win a majority of the primary vote, pushing the race to a runoff. With 57% of the expected vote in, Cornyn was leading with 43%, followed by Paxton at 40% and Hunt at 13%. And on the Democratic side, Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico are locked in a tough battle for the party’s Senate nomination. Democrats hope they can be competitive in the traditionally Republican state this fall as they face an uphill battle to net the four seats needed to flip control in the Senate.Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, is aiming to turn out new voters for her Senate campaign.Mark Felix / Bloomberg via Getty ImagesCornyn has argued that if Paxton is the nominee, he could put the Senate seat at risk, given his personal and professional controversies. Paxton was impeached over allegations of bribery and corruption in 2023; the state Senate acquitted him. And Paxton’s wife announced last year that she was divorcing him “on biblical grounds.”Paxton has argued that he can energize President Donald Trump’s core base of supporters who have been less likely to turn out for the GOP in midterm elections. Paxton and his supporters are also quick to compare the attorney general to Trump. “Since I started running, I’ve been victorious,” Paxton told reporters at a campaign event in Magnolia, Texas last month. “Trump went through the very same thing. Look where he’s at. It’s going to be the same way for me. We overcame all of them. You can make up whatever you want to make up. But the allegations are the allegations, and the truth is the truth.”Paxton knocked Cornyn on the campaign trail for being in office for too long, as well as his work on work on a bipartisan gun bill in the wake of multiple mass shootings, including one at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and his stances on a border wall and government funding. “We are going to defeat John Cornyn, and we’re going to get a U.S. senator that actually listens to us,” Paxton said at the Magnolia event. Trump has remained neutral in the primary, saying he supports all three candidates. But he could take a side in a runoff, according to a person familiar with the White House’s thinking and strategy.That person said Trump is likely to endorse Cornyn if he keeps the race close, as Cornyn is viewed as the low-risk, least-costly way to ensure a red seat stays in Republicans’ hands. But if Paxton pulls ahead by a sizable, double-digit margin, that could change Trump’s calculus, as he is unlikely to endorse someone he doesn’t think can win. Trump won Texas by 14 points in the 2024 presidential race, more than doubling his 6-point margin in 2020 as he made gains across the country. But Democrats think the Senate race could be competitive in the November of a midterm election year that favors the party out of power, pointing to then-Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s coming within 3 points of defeating GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018.The prospect of a potentially competitive — and expensive — Senate race in November has caused GOP leaders to rally behind Cornyn. He and his allies have spent a combined $78.5 million on ads in the primary, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Paxton and his allied outside groups have spent $4.4 million, while Hunt and his allied super PACs have spent $12.2 million. Cornyn and his allies have worked to stress that Cornyn is a Trump ally, with one recent TV ad from a group tied to Cornyn’s campaign describing the longtime senator as “tough as nails on illegal immigration” and notes he “votes with Trump 99% of the time.” “I’ve been proud to work with President Trump and support him, because his policies are good for Texas and good for the country,” Cornyn said at a campaign event last month in Austin. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has portrayed himself as President Donald Trump’s strongest ally in the GOP Senate race. Richard Rodriguez / Getty ImagesBut Cornyn has been haunted by some of his past comments about Trump, including his suggestion in 2023 that Trump was not the most electable presidential candidate in 2024.Cornyn told reporters after the Austin event that his team has a plan to compete in a runoff, acknowledging that fewer voters head to the polls in runoff elections. “We have our work cut out for us, but I’ve been fortunate enough to be endorsed by virtually every entity that makes endorsements, including the Chamber of Commerce and the Farm Bureau, and my friends at the Border Patrol union and everybody in between. And so what we are doing is working with them to encourage them to communicate with their membership, Cornyn said. “We’re doing things that have never been done before to try and encourage people to turn out to vote,” Cornyn later added. Lopsided ad spending has also been a feature of the Democratic primary, with Talarico and his allies looking to boost his name recognition in the sprawling state. Talarico has described himself as the “underdog” against Crockett, who entered the race in December with a national profile from her clashes with Trump and Republicans.Talarico and an allied super PAC have spent a combined $25.3 million on ads, while Crockett and an outside group backing her have spent $5.3 million. Texas state Rep. James Talarico and his allies have spent the most money in the Democratic Senate primary. Mark Felix / Bloomberg via Getty ImagesLargely aligned on policy, Talarico and Crockett have diverged over style and strategy as Democratic voters search for a fighter who could hand the party its first statewide win in more than 30 years.Crockett, whose supporters describe her as a fearless fighter, has said she can build a multiracial and multigenerational coalition of new voters to win Texas. Talarico’s supporters say he is likelier to win statewide by appealing to voters across the political spectrum, pointing to his victory in a Republican state House seat, his populist message and his frequent discussion of his Christian faith.