Trump Stays Neutral in Key Texas GOP Primaries as Early Voting Surges

With Texas’ March 3, 2026 primaries days away, President Donald Trump has conspicuously withheld endorsements in two of the state’s highest‑profile Republican contests — the U.S. Senate primary between Sen. John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt, and Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s re‑election race against GOP challenger Steve Toth in TX‑02 — even as he prepares an economy‑focused speech in Corpus Christi on Friday. Sen. Ted Cruz has broken with Crenshaw by endorsing Toth, making Crenshaw the only GOP House incumbent in Texas without Trump’s backing and underscoring tensions between MAGA activists, who brand Crenshaw a 'RINO,' and more traditional Republicans. In the Democratic Senate primary, state Rep. James Talarico has gained the Progressive Change Campaign Committee’s endorsement for his 'economic populism' as he battles Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who is touting her congressional record and painting him as too centrist. Unofficial data from the Texas secretary of state show early voting turnout has already set midterm records, with about 665,664 ballots cast in the Democratic Senate primary and 593,692 in the Republican contest, suggesting unusually high engagement for a non‑presidential year. The outcomes will determine the November matchups in newly gerrymandered House districts and a Senate seat that Democrats see as their best chance in decades to crack Texas’ GOP hold, directly affecting whether Trump can move the legislative agenda he sketched in his State of the Union.