Republican Torches Opponent for Cheating on His Wife in Explosive New Ad

A Texas Senate primary that should have been a routine win for Republicans in the Trump era has instead turned into one of the ugliest GOP battles of 2026. The fight between longtime Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton has now exploded into a full-scale civil war—complete with accusations of corruption, infidelity, and ideological betrayal.

The latest bombshell arrived Tuesday morning when Cornyn’s campaign, backed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, unleashed a scorching attack ad that brands Paxton a “crooked home wrecker” and accuses him of cheating with a married mother of seven. The ad dropped just one week before the March 3 Republican primary.

“This race should have been easy,” one senior GOP strategist said privately. “But Paxton is dragging Texas Republicans into a crisis at the worst possible time.”

The narrator of Cornyn’s ad doesn’t hold back. “Cut through the bullsh—t,” it begins. “Crooked Ken Paxton cheated on his wife. Now he’s wrecking another home, sleeping around with a married mother of seven.”

The spot also claims Paxton’s personal wealth skyrocketed “up to 7,000 percent” during his time in office and accuses him of funneling state tax dollars to left-wing organizations, including the Montrose Center, which the ad blasts for hosting drag performers and offering “gender-affirming programs for children as young as seven.”

Cornyn approved the ad himself. The senator closes the spot by reminding voters that he is the only candidate endorsed by the Border Patrol and that he “stood with President Donald Trump 99 percent of the time—then got the money to finish the damn wall.”

The allegations referenced in the ad center on 57-year-old author and Christian influencer Tracy Duhon. According to earlier reporting, Paxton allegedly met Duhon at the 2024 Kentucky Derby and began traveling with her months before her divorce filing.

Paxton’s office dismissed those reports as “trash blog gossip,” but never directly denied the details.

Cornyn’s campaign has since filed a Texas Public Information Act request seeking Paxton’s travel records—hoping to prove whether taxpayer funds were involved.

The ad also invokes Paxton’s long history of political drama: his 2018 admission of an affair, accusations from his own chief of staff during his 2023 impeachment proceedings, and the fact that the Texas House impeached him on corruption charges before the Texas Senate acquitted him.

“Ken Paxton has put his family through something truly repulsive and disgusting,” NRSC communications director Joanna Rodriguez said Tuesday, noting that Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce last summer.

President Trump’s return to the White House has energized GOP voters—but Republican leaders fear Paxton could still cost them a Senate seat that hasn’t gone blue since 1988.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who endorsed Cornyn early, warned that a Paxton nomination could force Republicans to “burn through hundreds of millions” defending Texas—money the party needs for battlegrounds like Georgia, Michigan, and North Carolina.

“We simply cannot afford an avoidable disaster,” Thune said.

Veteran strategist Karl Rove echoed the alarm last week, saying Paxton’s scandals could “hand Democrats a gift they didn’t earn.”

Polling shows Paxton holding a narrow lead over Cornyn in a three-way race that includes Rep. Wesley Hunt. One GOP operative told Politico that “all signs indicate Paxton finishes first,” but warned that donors are “not cautiously optimistic” that Cornyn will even survive to the May 26 runoff.

Republican insiders privately acknowledge they’ve already spent nearly $100 million trying to stop Paxton—and it hasn’t made a dent.

Paxton continues to lean heavily on his alliance with President Trump, who endorsed him during his reelection as attorney general and has appeared with him at multiple events. Paxton insists the attacks are nothing more than “old establishment tricks” designed to undermine a Trump-aligned conservative.

Cornyn, however, is now leaning into his own long-standing relationship with the president, telling supporters he is “the only proven fighter who can deliver for Texas under President Trump’s America-First agenda.”

For Texas Republicans, the next seven days will determine whether the party marches into November united—or torn apart by one of the most brutal intraparty fights in modern Texas history.

As one longtime GOP donor put it bluntly: “This isn’t just a Senate primary. It’s a referendum on what kind of Republican Party we want in the Trump era.”