DALLAS—Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will advance to a runoff in the Texas Republican Senate primary race after neither candidate managed to achieve 50 percent of the vote.
The Associated Press called the race around 10:50 p.m. ET on March 3, with 60 percent of the vote counted. The runoff will be held on May 26.
A third hopeful, Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), claimed 12.9 percent, knocking him out of contention.
At his election night party in Dallas, Paxton compared himself to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Cruz finished second in the 2012 Republican Senate primary before winning the runoff against Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst.
“The same thing is going to happen here,” he predicted.
He also praised Hunt, who, like Paxton, pitched himself to Texas Republicans as a more conservative alternative to Cornyn.
In Trinity, Texas, on Feb. 19, Hunt did not rule out endorsing Paxton in the runoff.
“I certainly would not be endorsing John Cornyn,” he told The Epoch Times.
Together with a Democratic contest between Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and state Rep. James Talarico, it became the most expensive Senate primary in history, according to advertising support data aggregated by AdImpact.
Republican spending was dominated by almost $70 million in support of Cornyn, a former member of Senate leadership who has been in the chamber for over two decades.
On March 2, one day before Election Day, the longtime senator made his pitch in Schertz, a city near San Antonio.
A supporter there, Daniel Mezza, told The Epoch Times that Cornyn “has a proven track record.”
“You don’t want to go into the general election with someone that has a bunch of baggage,” he added.
Paxton’s divorce and past impeachment have been the subject of attacks from Cornyn and his allies.
While Cornyn has stressed his support for President Donald Trump, Paxton has questioned the senator’s loyalty to the president and touted his own conservative record as attorney general.
Trump declined to endorse a specific candidate in the primary, instead saying that he likes all of them.
A man who backed the attorney general in his Senate bid, Christopher Jackson, said he does not think Paxton’s history would seriously hinder him if he makes it to the general election.
“I think that he’s ready for what’s next in life—ready for what’s next as senator,” Jackson told The Epoch Times at the Dallas hotel where Paxton held his election night party.
A strange incident marred the atmosphere ahead of that event.
A masked man in a vehicle was apprehended outside. Law enforcement told The Epoch Times that ammunition was found in the automobile, which was later towed.
“I think it alarmed everyone that he was all in camo, had a rucksack on,” eyewitness Alexander Muse told reporters.
In a statement on the incident provided to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson for the Dallas Police Department said that “officers were notified of a suspicious individual in the 3000 block of Fairmount Street. The individual entered a vehicle that did not display a proper license plate and left the area.
“Officers conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle. The driver was arrested for traffic violations. During an inventory search of the vehicle, officers located ammunition.”
In a subsequent statement, the spokesperson said that “investigators determined the individual was at the location to make a delivery to an employee.”
“He was transported to the Dallas County Jail without incident. His name will not be released until he is officially booked in.”