Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is weighing a primary challenge to Sen. John Cornyn (R) in what could be the next high-profile proxy battle between the two competing wings of the state’s GOP.

Paxton told Fox News in an interview on Monday that he is considering a bid for Cornyn’s Senate seat in 2026 as he speaks with various groups in Texas, saying a decision is likely in the “next couple of months.” If Paxton runs, the primary would likely be one of the most expensive in the country and the toughest election in both men’s careers.

It would also further illustrate the ongoing rift within the Texas Republican Party as the establishment wing and hard-liners fight for control.

“The right wing is ascendant,” said Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser, who ran Cornyn’s 2014 campaign. “It doesn’t necessarily mean they have more members in the [state] Legislature than the other wing of the party, but it means that the zeitgeist is very, very conservative and obviously very pro-Trump.”

Paxton’s statement is no surprise to those in Texas politics, as he has been rumored as a possible Senate candidate for months, if not years. And it would come after a back-and-forth has already been brewing between him and Cornyn, who has served in the Senate since 2002 and would be seeking his fifth term in office.

Paxton has often criticized Cornyn as a “RINO,” an acronym for “Republican in name only” that more right-leaning Republicans use to attack more moderate or mainstream party members. He’s gone after the incumbent over issues like his support for sending additional aid to Ukraine to repel Russia’s invasion and his bipartisan work to pass a gun control bill following the 2022 shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

And Cornyn has pushed back against Paxton over his record and controversies that have stuck around him throughout his time as attorney general.

After Paxton slammed Cornyn’s support for aid to Ukraine as an indication he “would stay up all night to........

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