Rick Perry says his political group will spend “whatever we need” to support John Cornyn in Senate primary

By Kayla Guo, The Texas Tribune
February 17, 2026

Stumping with Sen. John Cornyn in Austin on Tuesday, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said the political group he chairs, called the Lone Star Freedom Project, would spend “whatever we need” to see Cornyn through his bruising Republican primary, on top of the almost $18 million it has spent on his behalf.

Cornyn, who is serving his fourth term in the U.S. Senate, is battling to keep his seat against challenges from Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston, in a contest that looks destined to go to a May runoff.

Outside groups, Senate Republican leadership and Cornyn’s own fundraising committees have spent tens of millions of dollars to support the incumbent senator and attack his GOP rivals. The Senate race in Texas became the second-most expensive in the country Tuesday, according to AdImpact, with $98.2 million in total ad spending. Some three-quarters of the cash on the GOP side has come from pro-Cornyn sources — and yet, recent public polling has shown Paxton leading the contest.

Perry’s group has spent more than all but one other group among Cornyn’s several outside backers, who along with the senator’s campaign have dropped nearly $60 million on the race, per AdImpact. The former governor made clear that would continue into the runoff if Cornyn makes it past the March 3 election.

“We are committed to John, and we will spend whatever we need to spend for him to be successful,” Perry said when asked if he thought that level of fundraising and spending would continue.

Cornyn, kicking off a 10-stop statewide tour on the first day of early voting, warned that Republicans would see an “Election Day massacre” in November if he loses out on the Senate GOP nomination to Paxton.

“Republicans up and down the ticket will pay the price of having an albatross like the corrupt attorney general hung around their neck,” Cornyn said at a Tex-Mex restaurant alongside Perry and other supporters, where he further argued that Paxton’s nomination could threaten the new red congressional seats Texas Republicans drew last summer to pad their slim House majority. “We haven’t lost a statewide election in Texas since 1994, but we could this year if the wrong person is at the top of the ticket.”

The senior senator has argued throughout the campaign that he would keep moderate and swing voters in the GOP tent who would otherwise be turned off by Paxton’s ethical baggage — a history that includes indictment, impeachment and federal investigations that the attorney general has all largely withstood.

Paxton, meanwhile, is arguing in his campaign that Cornyn is a relic of the establishment GOP and ideologically out of step with President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. The third-term attorney general has long been trailed by a list of legal and ethical woes — including securities fraud charges and impeachment by the GOP-controlled Texas House on bribery and abuse of office allegations — from which he has emerged largely unscathed. More recently, Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce on “biblical grounds” after she accused him of cheating on her.

In a statement, Paxton adviser Nick Maddux said, “Character matters in this race, and that’s why the people of Texas overwhelmingly support Ken Paxton. They know that he is a conservative warrior who will always fight for us and our freedoms, even in the face of the Left trying to tear him down.”

Maddux added that Cornyn “is just like every other career politician who talks tough during election season, but then does the exact opposite in D.C. and betrays Texas by repeatedly pushing gun control and amnesty.”

Trump on Monday declined to make an endorsement in the primary, telling reporters, “They’ve all supported me, they’re all good and you’re supposed to pick one. So we’ll see what happens, but I support all three.”

In response, Cornyn said Tuesday that he would be “proud” to have Trump’s endorsement.

“I appreciate his kind words, referring to me as a friend and calling me a good man,” Cornyn said. “The president knows he can trust me to be there to support him and his agenda, and I appreciate that. But it’s going to be up to him to make that call. I think he kind of likes a good fight, and he’s going to see one right here in Texas.”

In his remarks, Perry praised Cornyn’s work on border security and other conservative causes over his four decades in public office. The two were flanked by representatives from the National Border Patrol Council, which has endorsed Cornyn for reelection.

“The people of the state of Texas know John Cornyn,” Perry said. “They know that character counts. They know that this man is going to go back to Washington, D.C., and day in and day out, deliver for them. What you have is a vanity campaign on the other side and a corrupt campaign on the other side.”

In a statement, Hunt spokesperson James Kyrkanides accused Perry of parroting talking points from Cornyn’s supporters in Senate GOP leadership and noted how much Cornyn-aligned groups have spent against Hunt.

“If Hunt’s candidacy wasn’t a threat, why would [Perry] spend his own money attacking Wesley?” Kyrkanides said. “On March 3, Texans are going to prove that they’re tired of gutter politics and establishment games. They’re ready for a new generation of leadership.”

Asked if he believed “character” still mattered in a Republican primary contest, Perry said, “We’re fixing to find out. If winning with a corrupt candidate is okay, then it ain’t the Republican Party that I joined in 1989.”

The Senate primary is Perry’s latest foray into a smashmouth GOP contest in his home state, after he campaigned for then-Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan in 2024 and helped the Beaumont Republican narrowly overcome a hardline challenger backed by Paxton. Perry also published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal ahead of Paxton’s impeachment trial in which he implied that state senators should reject Paxton’s efforts to dismiss the case.

Paxton is also embarking on a get-out-the-vote tour during early voting, planning up to nine rallies across the state to “engage conservative voters, drive early voter turnout and build momentum statewide,” according to Lone Star Liberty PAC, a group backing Paxton and sponsoring the tour.

Texas Rep. James Talarico, who is seeking the Democratic Senate nomination, also launched a “Take Back Texas” tour across the state Tuesday, featuring 12 rallies, in addition to stops at local restaurants and cultural landmarks, ahead of March 3.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.