Mr. Paxton, a scandal-plagued state attorney general, narrowly finished behind Mr. Cornyn in the Republican primary in March, even with record-setting spending from pro-Cornyn forces and before Mr. Trump endorsed him.<\/p>\n
Mr. Paxton is hoping to become the second Trump-endorsed challenger to oust a sitting senator this year, after Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana didn\u2019t even make the runoff in his state earlier this month. Mr. Trump\u2019s backing has proved formidable in the House, too, where he helped a G.O.P. challenger defeat Representative Thomas Massie<\/a> of Kentucky last week.<\/p>\n The Senate race is the highest-profile contest on Tuesday, as Texas has emerged as a surprise addition to the map of competitive Senate races and the fight for the majority this fall. Mr. Cornyn and several of his Republican colleagues in the Senate decried the Paxton endorsement, arguing that Mr. Paxton is more vulnerable to an upset by James Talarico, a Democrat, than the incumbent is.<\/p>\n A number of intriguing and consequential runoffs are also appearing on the ballot. They include two representatives facing off against each other, one of whom will become the first Democratic incumbent to lose this year; and a border-district seat that pits a Democratic sex therapist accused of antisemitism who has been boosted by a secretive super PAC linked to Republicans against a sheriff\u2019s deputy from Bexar County.<\/p>\n What else to watch on Tuesday:<\/p>\n Can Cornyn sell an electability pitch?<\/p>\n Mr. Cornyn has argued that Mr. Paxton would put the senior senator\u2019s seat needlessly at risk this fall against Mr. Talarico in a state where Republicans haven\u2019t lost statewide in three decades. <\/p>\n Mr. Talarico, a state legislator from Austin, has captured the attention of small Democratic donors who were drawn to his embrace of a religious message<\/a> as a salve to the party\u2019s generation-long struggles in the state. He raised $27 million in the first quarter, nearly four times what Mr. Paxton has raised in the entire race.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump\u2019s endorsement last week of Mr. Paxton makes Mr. Cornyn the underdog: He rolled out a hashtag of \u201c#stillwithCornyn,\u201d which underscored the uphill nature of his re-election bid.<\/p>\n The race has broken primary advertising records, but Republicans warned that taking down Mr. Talarico could force the party to spend money in Texas in the general election.<\/p>\n A generational clash in Houston<\/p>\n No Democratic member of Congress has lost a primary so far in 2026, despite a groundswell of voter antipathy toward party leadership and the old guard.<\/p>\n That will change on Tuesday, when two incumbents will seek the same Houston-area seat in a test of the appetite of voters for generational change.<\/p>\n Representative Al Green, an 11-term House Democrat, faces a much younger opponent in Tuesday\u2019s runoff for the 18th Congressional District in the Houston area.Credit…Eric Lee for The New York TimesTexas Republicans drew Representative Christian Menefee into the same district as Mr. Green, setting up a generational choice for voters.Credit…Kent Nishimura for The New York Times<\/p>\n The race for the state\u2019s 18th Congressional District pits Representative Christian Menefee, 38, against Representative Al Green, a 78-year old, 11-term incumbent. Mr. Menefee is an incumbent but only barely: He first won his seat in a special election earlier this year. Mr. Green currently represents the Ninth District, which was gerrymandered to elect a Republican, and is seeking renomination in the 18th, which includes portions of his current district.<\/p>\n A wave of crypto spending<\/a> on behalf of Mr. Menefee and against Mr. Green has influenced the race. Mr. Green has been a critic of the industry and sits on the powerful House Financial Services Committee.<\/p>\n Can national Democrats stop one of their own they say is antisemitic?<\/p>\n In yet another Democratic face-off, Johnny Garcia, a Bexar County sheriff\u2019s deputy, has the look, on paper at least, of a candidate who should be coasting to victory in his runoff in the 35th Congressional District on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Johnny Garcia, a deputy sheriff in Bexar County, is seeking the Democratic nomination in the 35th Congressional District against Maureen Galindo, who has made controversial remarks about American Jews and has received support from a group with Republican ties. Credit…Callaghan O’Hare for The New York Times<\/p>\n The Democratic candidate has been endorsed by the national party\u2019s House campaign arm, by Mr. Talarico and by the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats in the House.<\/p>\n His rival, Maureen Galindo, is a sex therapist and left-wing activist who has suggested an immigration detention center be turned into \u201ca prison for American Zionists,\u201d which Democrats have denounced as \u201cstraight out of the Nazi playbook.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n Yet Ms. Galindo has been lifted by nearly $900,000 in spending from a secretive super PAC that has reported no donors but has loose ties to Republicans and has been meddling<\/a> in Democratic races.<\/p>\n Ms. Galindo finished first<\/a> in the initial election in March. Democrats believe Mr. Garcia could compete for the seat in November, even though Republicans drew it to elect a Republican in their redistricting gambit last year.<\/p>\n A Democratic showdown in Dallas<\/p>\n When Colin Allred vacated his congressional seat in 2024 to run for Senate \u2014 he lost to incumbent Ted Cruz \u2014 his career in the House of Representatives seemed over. But after he initially tried running for Senate again this cycle, he decided his chances of serving again would be stronger if he ran for the House.<\/p>\n That decision has put him on a collision course with his successor, Representative Julie Johnson.<\/p>\n The race has been marked by some of the same racial dynamics of the Senate primary that Mr. Allred exited. Mr. Allred is Black and Ms. Johnson is white. Mr. Allred supported Representative Jasmine Crockett, who is Black, in the Senate race; Ms. Johnson endorsed Mr. Talarico, who is white, before Ms. Crockett entered the race. Mr. Talarico defeated Ms. Crockett by a six-point margin.<\/p>\n Representative Julie Johnson, Democrat of Texas, succeeded Colin Allred in the House of Representatives and now faces him on Tuesday.Credit…Eric Lee for The New York Times<\/p>\n