NEW: Dark Horse Candidate Emerges In Pivotal Senate Primary Race

While Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has long maintained a polling edge over incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a dark horse candidate has emerged and is vying for President Donald Trump’s endorsement.

U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), a staunch Trump ally who previously served as the president’s personal physician, recently met with Trump at the White House in order to discuss “Texas politics,” according to a report from Semafor.

Jackson has emerged as a potential candidate in the tightly contested senate primary, which to this point has been between Paxton and Cornyn as the incumbent seeks his fifth term in office. The congressman reportedly discussed what he has most recently heard about the race, as well as the state’s broader congressional maps as Texas Governor Greg Abbot eyes redistricting, Semafor reported, citing two White House officials familiar with the meeting.

President Trump reportedly sought Jackson’s input as lawmakers in the Lonestar State are currently considering a map that would add seven likely Republican pickups in the 2026 midterm elections, a move that could decide the balance of power in the House. Additional Republican-controlled states, including Missouri, Ohio and potentially Florida, are also considering redistricting ahead of the pivotal elections.

It is not known whether Jackson’s potential entry into the Senate race was discussed at the meeting. The congressman has also yet to comment on the matter himself.

Fellow U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) has also met with the White House in recent days to discuss similar developments. Like Jackson, Hunt has been linked to the Senate primary and has been accounted for in a number of the most current polls.

In the latest RealClearPolitics polling average for the primary, Paxton had a lead of 7.5 percentage points (40 percent to 32.5 percent), with Hunt receiving 15.5 percent. A poll from Pulse Research, which was commissioned last month by a super PAC supporting Paxton, found the attorney general leading decisively with 57 percent of the vote to Cornyn’s 38 percent.

Another poll commissioned by the Senate Leadership Fund, which is supporting Cornyn, also found Paxton with a sizable lead of 56 percent to 40 percent.

Trump has yet to issue an endorsement in the race, though Cornyn — who has been a fierce critic of the president in the past — believes it could be his if polling shifts in his favor.

“We just have to do two things,” Cornyn said. “One is to remind people what I’ve done and my record of support for the president during his first and now second term. And, secondly, to remind people what a crook Ken Paxton is.”

Paxton remains popular among the Trump base due to his efforts to combat voter fraud, as well as his numerous spats with the Republican establishment in Texas. The attorney general successfully fended off an impeachment effort in 2023.

Cornyn on the other hand has long been facing an uphill battle due to his previous clashes with President Trump. He also joined Democrats in co-sponsoring a sweeping gun control bill in the aftermath of the Uvalde Elementary School mass shooting.