STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Texas Republicans face a second round in their primary for a U.S. Senate seat. Houston Public Media's Andrew Schneider reports on the maneuvering.
ANDREW SCHNEIDER, BYLINE: President Trump said in a Truth Social post that he wants the Texas GOP to unify behind a single candidate to head off the challenge from state Representative James Talarico, who won the Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday. Trump hasn't publicly said whom he's leaning toward, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Real America's Voice Wednesday that he will fight out the Republican Senate primary to the end, no matter what Trump says.
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KEN PAXTON: I'm staying in this race. I owe it to the people of Texas. I've spent a year of my life campaigning for - against John Cornyn.
SCHNEIDER: Incumbent Senator John Cornyn eked out a first-place finish against Paxton on Tuesday, but neither cleared the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff. Cindy Siegel, who chairs the Harris County Republican Party, says she thinks the GOP can beat Talarico in the general election no matter which candidate the Republicans ultimately nominate. But she says the party needs to unite and soon.
CINDY SIEGEL: You fight like hell to get your candidate or to win your race. But you don't want to fight so hard that you tear the party apart, that people can't overcome it and get behind our entire slate of candidates.
SCHNEIDER: But Jon Taylor, a political scientist at the University of Texas at San Antonio, says at this point in the race, a Trump endorsement may not unify the state's Republican voters.
JON TAYLOR: The MAGA base in Texas, they want Ken Paxton. They may support Trump, but they want Paxton.
SCHNEIDER: Taylor says neither Paxton nor Cornyn has an incentive to drop out just on Trump's say-so. This is already the most expensive U.S. Senate primary on record, according to AdImpact, and the GOP infighting could drag on until the runoff scheduled for May 26.
TAYLOR: This is a fight essentially on who can light the largest pile of money on fire when it comes to this race, and it's going to get even nastier and lower into the mud than it already has. And I think that's what Trump was trying to get at, is that we've got to avoid this if we want to hold this Senate seat.
SCHNEIDER: Trump says that his endorsements are, quote, "virtually insurmountable" within his party, but Texas will soon be a real test of that.
For NPR News, I'm Andrew Schneider in Houston.
INSKEEP: Another bit of news out of Texas - Congressman Tony Gonzales has now announced that he will not seek reelection after outrage over an alleged affair.
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