On Wednesday, March 25, the Conservative Political Action Conference, commonly known as CPAC, kicked off in Grapevine, Texas. President Donald Trump did not attend the event this year, for the first time in a decade. The 2026 conference was noteworthy for a couple of reasons: A bitter GOP Senate primary speaks to the split between the Republican Party establishment and the wider conservative Make America Great Again movement, and a straw poll revealed who’s leading the race for 2028 and whose stock is on the ascent.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas is in a tight spot – though, so too, perhaps, is the primary challenger who has forced a May runoff. The Lone Star State’s current attorney general, Ken Paxton, is favored by the more MAGA-focused voters, while the Republican Party establishment backs the incumbent Cornyn, fearing Paxton may lose the seat to James Talarico, a radical Democrat who defeated outgoing Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) in the recent primaries.
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