Paxton to hold election night event in Plano next week

Ken Paxton will take his election-night message to Plano, putting Collin County at the center of a runoff that has already consumed millions of dollars and sharpened the fight over the Republican Party of Texas.

His super PAC announced that the event will be in Plano next week, giving supporters a fixed place to gather as Paxton faces U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the May 26 Republican runoff for Texas’s U.S. Senate seat. No candidate won a majority in the March 3 primary, forcing the two men into a head-to-head contest that has become one of the most expensive Texas primary cycles on record.

The choice of Plano is politically revealing. Collin County has grown into one of North Texas’ most important suburban battlegrounds, and Republican campaigns increasingly treat it as more than a donor base or a place to stage rallies. It is a county where turnout, affluent suburban voters and conservative activism can all shape the margins that statewide candidates need. For Paxton, holding his election-night event there signals that his campaign sees Collin County not just as friendly territory, but as a setting that reflects the broader Republican coalition he is trying to consolidate.

Paxton has used Plano before for political events, and those appearances have drawn both supporters and protesters. That history makes the city a familiar backdrop for a candidate whose brand remains polarizing even inside his own party. In a runoff defined by heavy negative advertising, the setting also gives Paxton a place to project strength before the final votes are counted.

The race itself has become a test of the GOP’s direction in Texas. Paxton’s allies and Cornyn’s allies have poured money into attack ads and outside spending, turning the contest into a referendum on style, loyalty and electability as much as on policy. Questions about turnout loom over both camps, especially with November implications for the party if the eventual nominee emerges weakened.

Paxton’s political profile still carries the weight of his 2023 impeachment fight. The Texas House of Representatives impeached him on multiple charges, and the Texas Senate acquitted him in September 2023, allowing him to return to office. That episode, along with other legal and political battles, has kept him at the center of Texas Republican politics and helped make this runoff one of the most closely watched contests in the state.