Texas 2026 live primary election results: Cornyn and Paxton headed to runoff, Talarico advances
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks during a Get Out The Vote campaign rally at the Schertz Civic Center Conference Hall on March 02, 2026 in Schertz, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — ABC News projects Texas Sen. John Cornyn will face a runoff against state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Replican Senate primary in Texas. The Associated Press has projected that Texas state Rep. James Talarico will win the Democratic Senate primary.
The Senate primaries are among those in the state that have national implications and will shed insight into American attitudes one year into President Donald Trump’s second term.
Trump has made it clear that he is keeping a close eye on the state, announcing endorsements in select House races but staying on the sidelines for the Senate race.
In a House race that Trump didn’t make an endorsement in, state Rep. Steve Toth will defeat incumbent four-term Rep. Dan Crenshaw, The Associated Press projects.
State significance
The race between Cornyn, who is seeking his fifth term in the Senate, and Paxton is the “most expensive Senate primary on record,” according to tracking firm AdImpact, with over $122 million dedicated to ad spending and reservations.
On the Democratic side, Talarico defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett, according to the Associated Press, in a battle between two rising stars in the Democratic Party who both hope to flip the seat for the first time in decades.
This election also marks the moment in which redistricting will begin to play out. Following Trump’s encouragement last summer, Texas spearheaded the redistricting wars — triggering a Supreme Court case, sparking national debate over mid-decade gerrymandering, and prompting other states to follow suit.
Now, newly drawn maps are likely to deliver five GOP pickups for the House of Representatives, where Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority.
While Texas’ 23rd Congressional District is expected to stay red, the showdown between Trump-endorsed incumbent Rep. Tony Gonzales and Brandon Herrera will be one to watch, especially after multiple Republicans have called upon Gonzales to resign following an alleged relationship with his former staffer who died by suicide.
In the gubernatorial race, ABC News projects Trump-endorsed Gov. Greg Abbott, who is running for his fourth term in a state where governors do not have term limits, will face state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic candidate.
Meanwhile, retired MLB baseball star Mark Teixeira is projected to win the Republican primary for Texas’s 21st congressional district, the Associated Press projects.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on March 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A Democratic senator says Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem provided false testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In her appearance before the committee on Tuesday, Noem was asked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., whether her adviser Corey Lewandowski, who is serving as a special government employee, has any role in approving DHS contracts, and she said no.
“Evidence suggests that your testimony was false. Internal DHS records show that Mr. Lewandowski has personally approved contracts at DHS, including, but not limited to, a multimillion-dollar contract,” according to a letter Blumenthal sent to Noem on Wednesday. “And current and former DHS employees have stated that Mr. Lewandowski’s signature is a green light for money to be transmitted to contractors.”
Blumenthal sent the letter on Wednesday night, after Noem’s testimony in front the House Committee.
In a follow-up appearance before a House committee on Wednesday, Rep. Jared Moskowitz asked Noem if she would like to correct her answer from Tuesday.
“What I would say is that he is an adviser to the Department of Homeland Security,” she said.
Sources have told ABC News that Lewandowski is Noem’s de facto chief of staff, despite having a 130-day cap on being able to work at the department, due to his status as a special government employee.
According to multiple sources, Lewandowski and Noem both approve contracts and “nothing” gets to the secretary without Lewandowski’s approval.
“Mr. Lewandowski is a Special Government Employee,” a department spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News. “Mr. Lewandowski’s time is kept by a career DHS employee who submits the paperwork on a bi-weekly basis. He has completed all of the required Office of Government Ethics forms, including full financial disclosure and any investments by his family. Mr. Lewandowski does not receive a salary or any federal government benefits. He volunteers his time to serve the American people. He serves as an advisor. The Secretary, like all previous Secretaries, has various senior advisors.”
Oftentimes, Lewandowski travels with the secretary to her public events, and on multiple occasions ABC News has seen Lewandowski behind the scenes at events where the secretary is speaking.
Asked by two Democratic representatives if the two were romantically linked, Noem did not deny it and instead called the two Democratic members’ line of questioning “garbage.”
Lewandowski and Noem have both previously denied any romantic relationship. Both are married to other people.
On Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in front of the Orange County Courthouse, advocates and former elected officials asked President Trump to create a pathway to permanent residency for Haitians who face deportations as their temporary protected status expires on Feb. 3. (Natalia Jaramillo/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants.
In an 83-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes granted a stay maintaining the legal status of Haitian nationals “pending judicial review.” In her ruling, she accused Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of “preordaining” her termination decision, saying she “did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants.”
“There is an old adage among lawyers,” Judge Reyes wrote. “If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table.”
“Secretary Noem, the record to-date shows, does not have the facts on her side — or at least has ignored them,” Reyes continued. “Does not have the law on her side — or at least has ignored it. Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, she pounds X (f/k/a Twitter).”
Judge Reyes wrote that while Noem has a First Amendment right “to call immigrants killers, leeches, [and] entitlement junkies,” she is constrained by the Constitution and federal law to “apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program.”
“The Government does not cite any reason termination must occur post haste,” Reyes wrote. “Secretary Noem complains of strains unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight.”
The federal judge noted that Noem “has terminated every TPS country designation to have reached her desk — twelve countries up, twelve countries down.”
“The statutory design is straightforward: TPS exists because threats to life exist; when the threat persists, so should TPS protection, unless the Secretary articulates a well-reasoned and well-supported national interest to the contrary,” she wrote.
The D.C. federal judge listed the five plaintiffs by name, saying, “They are not, it emerges, ‘killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies.'”
“They are instead: Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer’s disease; Rudolph Civil, a software engineer at a national bank; Marlene Gail Noble, a laboratory assistant in a toxicology department; Marica Merline Laguerre, a college economics major; and Vilbrun Dorsainvil, a full-time registered nurse,” Judge Reyes wrote.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin released a statement to ABC News on Monday night, saying, “Supreme Court, here we come.”
“This is lawless activism that we will be vindicated on. Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago, it was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades. Temporary means temporary and the final word will not be from an activist judge legislating from the bench,” McLaughlin said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) participates in a public forum on the violent use of force by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents, at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on February 03, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Expanding her probes into Trump administration policies, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is demanding answers from Health and Human Service Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the impact of federal immigration surges on children’s health.
In a letter to Kennedy first obtained by ABC News, Warren, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, and other congressional Democrats expressed concern that the health department is failing in its responsibility to protect the wellbeing of children.
“This disregard for child welfare undermines the government’s core child-protection obligations,” the lawmakers wrote. “Yet your agency [HHS] does not appear to be taking any action to speak out against or investigate the impacts of the Trump Administration’s immigration agenda on children,” they wrote.
The letter says the federal operations from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “risk traumatizing children and depriving them of access to education and basic services, with lasting consequences for their behavioral, physical, academic, and emotional wellbeing.”
Warren told ABC News, “Donald Trump promised two things: he would lower costs for American families and he would keep families safe.”
“Costs are up and, thanks to ICE targeting, families are more at risk than at any time in living memory,” she said.
The Massachusetts senator urged Kennedy to respond to her inquiry and remind the world of the health department’s responsibility to children.
“That means not putting [kids] through the trauma of violent separation from their parents, having flash bangs thrown at them, having them gassed, or using them as bait to try to snare their family members,” Warren told ABC News at the Capitol on Wednesday.
HHS spokeswoman Emily Hilliard asserted that “The Department remains committed to the safety and well-being of all unaccompanied minors in its care.”
“Any claims otherwise are baseless and inaccurate,” she said.
More than 50 lawmakers signed on to the letter requesting that Kennedy provide any information HHS has regarding the impact of ICE and CBP operations on children’s mental health and development by Feb. 18. Their letter comes amid Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, where Trump’s border czar Tom Homan announced Wednesday the government will reduce about a quarter of the 3,000 federal troops in the state effective immediately. Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith told ABC News the federal operation has resulted in a precipitous drop in school attendance that will have a “dramatic” and “long-lived” impact on children and families.
Warren’s letter stressed that ICE and CBP’s tactics include the alleged use of tear gas, explosives, attack dogs and window-smashing in or near schools and child care centers in places like Minnesota, Illinois and Texas. It also recounts at least four students who have experienced “raids” at schools, day care centers, and a child’s birthday party.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has stressed that the agency is not invading or raiding classrooms. However, a DHS memo outlining the department’s approach said “[ICE] Officers would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a school. We expect these to be extremely rare.”
National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues said she spent the last week with parents in Minnesota and told ABC News that it’s “deeply unsafe” for children to be walking through what she described as “war zones” to get to school.
“Parents want the expectation that in places like schools, their kids are going to be safe,” Rodrigues said. “You got ICE agents that are stalking kids walking to elementary school. You got guys with binoculars banging on the doors of the schoolhouse — like none of this is going to work for parents,” she added.
Neither DHS nor the White House responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
Warren, a fierce defender of public education and vocal Trump critic, has used Trump’s second term to fight back against his policies.
Last year, Warren launched her “Save Our Schools” campaign in opposition to Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education and another investigation called the Social Security War Room, a coordinated effort to combat the administration’s so-called “attack on Americans’ Social Security” at the Social Security Administration.
Meanwhile, the impact of Trump’s immigration curb is having a ripple effect across the country, according to education leaders and experts who’ve spoken to ABC News, saying it’s leaving some families and communities fearful of returning to school each day — from the nation’s capital to Los Angeles, California —
To-wen Tseng, a substitute teacher in California, said her students ask her ‘What will happen if the ICE agents come to our classroom?'” “I told them that won’t happen because the school won’t let them in and I won’t let them enter the classroom [either],” Tseng told ABC News. “But the truth is, I don’t know what I can do if ICE really shows up at my classroom door,” she said.
“I keep telling my children and my students that they are safe, just because I don’t want them to worry, and I feel it should be our responsibility to protect them,” Tseng added. “We should keep them safe.”
