On May 26, 2026, the second half of President Donald Trump’s second term may be on the ballot.

Texas Senator John Cornyn held off Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to lead in the first round of the 2026 race for the Texas Senate seat, but since Congressman Wesley Hunt drew more than 13% of the primary vote, a run-off between Cornyn and Paxton will be held on May 26.

Senator Cornyn is a stalwart conservative, a former Texas State Supreme Court justice and a strong supporter of President Donald Trump. Attorney General Paxton is a fixture of the often black-and-blue brawling of the Lone Star State’s internal combinations.

How black-and-blue?

Paxton was impeached by the overwhelmingly GOP-dominated state legislature on 16 counts of alleged wrongdoing in 2023. Paxton survived his trial in the Texas State Senate and was acquitted, but should he somehow catch and pass Cornyn in the run-off, the safe GOP seat in deep-red Texas suddenly becomes very winnable for the Democrats who have nominated boy-band-look alike James Talarico. Cornyn will roll over the young man. Paxton is likely to get rolled by him.

President Trump could come in on Cornyn’s side before May 26 and put an end to the sideshow that threatens to put the GOP’s Senate majority at risk if Paxton wins.

The Senate GOP enjoys a 53-47 advantage right now. While it is hard to see a path for Democrats to get to 51, it’s not impossible. It becomes much more likely, in fact, if Paxton wins the run-off and loses the general. Much. More. Likely.

What would a Democratic Senate majority mean for President Trump? Start with long, repeating Senate trials on bogus articles of impeachment which will roll over from a House Democratic majority on a conveyor belt. Count on a Democratic Senate majority to go to any lengths to recapture the White House in 2028 while crippling the ability of 45-47 to get much done in his last two years.

The courts would also be at risk. President Trump’s nominees for the federal bench, especially the Supreme Court, should any occur, would not get a hearing as Democrats chant in unison the name of Merrick Garland.

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In fact, it would not be surprising to see zero nominees for any advice-and-consent position proceed to a floor vote. The Democrats are deranged — “These people are crazy!” was the best line of the president’s State of the Union — and a “TDS” infected Democratic Senate majority would be a nightmare for the president and the Republic.

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The good news is that Texas Republicans are a smart lot. They have rejected every attempt by national media over two decades to get them to desert the GOP to support the latest progressive poster child. Texas voters play politics like they play football — to win. Trading a veteran and accomplished legislator for (at best) the lowest ranked senator in an institution that runs on seniority would be foolish indeed. Switching Cronyn out for Paxton is inviting Talarico to “represent” Texas for six long years.

Texans shouldn’t bench a long-time winner for an injured and injury-prone JV player. President Trump can assure that they won’t. The president played it smart by letting Texas Republicans pick their leader in the clubhouse. Now is the time for President Trump to seal his party’s majority in the Senate in 2027 and 2028 with a ringing endorsement of Senator John Cornyn.

Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show” heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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Jasmine Crockett’s pastor, Frederick Haynes III, who announced his bid to take over Crockett’s House seat shortly after she announced her now-failed bid for the U.S. Senate, won the Democratic primary for Texas’s 30th Congressional District and will likely win in November due to the district being reliably blue.

Haynes, who Crockett calls her pastor and mentor, runs Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, where he has been at the helm for around 40 years, according to public reporting. 

In a sermon the day after Hamas invaded Israel and slaughtered thousands of Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, Haynes blasted Israeli “apartheid” and praised notorious antisemite Louis Farrakhan, who infamously compared Jews to termites in one of his sermons. In addition to Haynes’ anti-Israel remarks, he has also positioned himself as a radical reparations activist who once told congregants that “America was born in political violence.”

“America, you owe us. What you done to us has been immoral. It’s been evil. It’s been unjust. It’s been downright wrong and the only way to bring salvation to America – you gotta pay us what you owe us,” Haynes told congregants in 2022 at the San Francisco church of failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ longtime mentor and pastor, Amos Brown, who has made several controversial comments, including blaming the United States for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“If you want salvation to come to this house, you’ve got to engage in reparations,” he continued.

In Tuesday’s primary, Haynes came out with a commanding victory, garnering 72.6% of the vote, according to the Associated Press. Former Texas state representative and Dallas City Council member, Barbara Caraway, came in second with 23.1% of the vote, and another Dallas-area pastor, Rodney LaBruce, came in third with just 4.3% of the vote. 

Texas’s 30th Congressional District has been controlled by Democrats for many years and covers the southern portions of the Dallas-Forth Worth metro area. 

Haynes campaigned on issues that align with Crockett’s time in congress as a member of the progressive group of lawmakers dubbed, “The Squad,” including Medicare for All, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and raising the minimum wage. Crockett’s time with the “Squad” is now ending following her loss in the Texas Democratic Party primary for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday against moderate James Talarico.

During his watch-party on election night Tuesday, Haynes also parroted claims that Crockett and other Democrats made about alleged voter suppression spurred by Republicans in Tuesday’s Texas primaries. 

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In addition to his sermons and discussions at churches promoting reparations, Haynes also participated in a reparations rally outside the White House in 2023, during which he said the United States was “born in the sin of a hostile, genocidal takeover of Indigenous land and shaped by anti-Black White supremacy.” 

“This is a country that spent in the aftermath of emancipation decades plundering Black communities and ensuring that we were economically exploited and excluded,” Haynes said at the rally. “And so how could you talk about redemption without reparation?”

“We’ve come to cash our check because we’ve seen the [profit and loss] statement,” he continued.

Haynes also has a history of pushing anti-Israel sentiment. In 2017, Haynes posted a photo of himself on social media with notorious antisemite Louis Farrakhan, calling him a “wonderful and great man.” Farrkhan once called Jews termites in a now infamous sermon. Meanwhile, just one day after Hamas terrorists went into Israel and killed thousands of Israelis, Haynes suggested Israel’s “apartheid” was to blame. 

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Last year, after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Haynes accused Kirk of espousing “dangerous” views “rooted in white supremacy,” and criticized characterizations of Kirk’s murder as an assassination. “A White Christian gets killed, murdered, not assassinated,” Haynes said, before launching into a comparison about how Black people who have been assassinated allegedly get treated worse. “Martin King got assassinated, Malcom X got assassinated, Medgar Evers got assassinated, don’t compare Kirk to King.”

Though he condemned political violence, Haynes proceeded to drill into Kirk, saying, “What Kirk said was dangerous, what Kirk said was racist, rooted in white supremacy, nasty and hate-filled.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Haynes for comment on his radical positions, but he, nor any of his representatives, have responded.

Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.

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Bodycam video from the Austin mass shooting, which is being investigated as a terrorist attack, was released on Thursday as the county’s liberal district attorney announced he would take no action against the three officers who killed the suspect.

In 911 audio released by the Austin Police Department along with the bodycam video, one individual told the operator that he “heard like six gunshots.”

“We’re hiding between cars,” the caller said. “There has been a shooting at Buford’s on 6th St. There are people dead over here. There have been multiple people shot. We need help right now.”

In one surveillance video released by police, the shooter, identified as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne, can be seen walking around a parking lot with an AR-15 before opening fire on someone nearby.

Officers can be seen in bodycam video directing bystanders to get down before opening fire on Diagne, who was killed.

Travis County District Attorney José Garza announced Wednesday that no action would be taken against the three police officers who killed Diagne. Diagne shot and killed three people and left more than a dozen other people injured on Sunday outside a bar in Austin, Texas.

“Today, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office notified the Austin Police Department that it has formally concluded its review of the mass shooting on 6th Street and will take no action against the three officers who stopped the shooting,” the news release stated.

Under a 2021 policy by Garza’s office, all officer-involved shooting cases were to be presented to a grand jury.

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Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock told Fox News Digital he wishes Garza would have made the decision to not convene a grand jury much earlier, and said police officers are under constant fear of being targeted by the liberal district attorney.

“The reality is APD officers are more afraid of the DA targeting them than a gunman shooting at them,” Bullock told Fox News Digital.

Bullock said it’s the first time Garza hasn’t presented an officer-involved shooting to a grand jury since implementing the policy.

Doug O’Connell, a criminal defense attorney representing the Austin police officers, told Fox News the 2021 policy was instituted at the direction of the Wren Collective, which is a criminal-justice reform group providing financial support to progressive prosecutors.

“When our current district attorney came into office about six years ago, he instituted this policy at the direction of the Wren Collective, and it’s been in place since that time. Every officer-involved shooting has been presented to the grand jury,” O’Connell said. “It’s not required by law. It is simply a policy decision that he’s instituted at the direction of Wren Collective.”

Bullock said the Wren Collective has recently pushed “to increase the number of indictments against officers which can only be done through grand jury.”

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National Police Association spokesperson Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith told Fox News Digital that investigations into officer-involved shootings should be internal. 

“A grand jury is basically a secret process and is controlled by the prosecutor. These officers cannot have a defense attorney or a union representative in the grand jury,” Smith said. “He is well known as one of the most anti-police district attorneys in the nation.”

Garza previously called the officers that killed Diagne “heroes.” The shooting happened at Austin’s Buford’s Backyard Beer garden shortly before 2 a.m. on Sunday.

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FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Alex Doran said during a press conference on Sunday that while investigators are still looking for a possible motive, there were “indicators that on the subject and in his vehicle that indicate potential nexus to terrorism.”

Law enforcement sources told Fox News that the shooter was wearing a sweatshirt that read “Property of Allah“ as well as an undershirt with an Iranian flag. The sources said a Quran was also found in Diagne’s car. According to CBS News, Diagne had pictures of Iranian leaders at his home as well as an Iranian flag.

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Savitha Shan, 21, Ryder Harrington, 19 and Jorge Pederson, 30, were killed in the shooting, authorities said during a Monday press conference.

Diagne initially entered the United States in 2000 on a B-2 tourist visa, according to the Department of Homeland Security, becoming a lawful permanent resident in 2006 after marrying a U.S. citizen.

On April 5, 2013, Diagne became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

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Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said Diagne “put his flashers on, rolled down his window and began using a pistol shooting out of his car windows, striking patrons of the bar that were on the patio and that were in front of the bar.”

Davis said the suspect exited his vehicle and shot at individuals, but didn’t enter the bar.

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