Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn and his GOP primary rival Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton traded barbs Friday — with Cornyn claiming the race will be a “test of character” as he trails Paxton in multiple polls.

Cornyn, who has served in the Senate since 2002, called on Paxton’s past corruption allegations, which resulted in his 2023 impeachment and acquittal, in a New York Times interview released Friday. Attempting to shift the focus of the race from policy to Paxton’s character “may be one of the few avenues available to Mr. Cornyn who could find it difficult to outflank Mr. Paxton on the right,” the Times reported.

“I’m willing to bet my career and my future and this job on my belief that character does matter still,” Cornyn said. “[Paxton thinks] he can get away with a whole litany of misbehavior and corruption that should disqualify him from the job.”

The senator alluded to the allegations of corruption and abuse that led to Paxton’s impeachment, claiming they were “just the tip of the iceberg,” telling the newspaper more revelations behind Paxton’s allegations would surface before the primary.

However, the attorney general fired back, telling the Times that Cornyn was attempting to change the centerpiece of the race due to poor showings in multiple recent polls.

“John Cornyn is peddling a new fake lie every week because he is down [in the polls],” Paxton told the newspaper in a statement. Paxton also told the Times that Cornyn’s attacks “can’t change the fact that he worked with [former President] Joe Biden to take away our gun rights.”

Cornyn posted his interview with the Times to X on Friday morning, shortly after it was published.

Paxton quickly responded to Cornyn’s post stating that the longtime senator “will never stop betraying conservatives and the America First agenda,” specifically pointing to the issue of gun rights. Cornyn voted for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a gun control bill Biden signed in 2022.

The war of words between the two men came just after a poll published Wednesday found Cornyn trailing Paxton by 9 points. Paxton led with 43% of the vote, compared to Cornyn’s 34%, according to the survey of likely Texas GOP primary voters from the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center at Texas Southern University. The remaining 23% of voters stated they were undecided.

Cornyn was notably booed while delivering a speech at the Republican Party of Texas convention in 2022, shortly after voting for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and was rejected by Dallas and Tarrant County Republicans when he was in the running to become Senate Majority Leader in 2024. The County Republicans said at the time that they wanted the Senate to elect a leader that “represents President [Donald] Trump and the American First Agenda.”

Trump has yet to endorse in Texas’ 2026 Senate Republican primary.

Cornyn’s campaign and Paxton’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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